Forever Finding Stormy Seas (Rewritten)
by MyEccentricSelf
Summary: The story of Finnick Odair and my OC Calla's lives Rated T for suggestive themes and language
1. 1: Callalily - Age 15

**A/N**

**Hello there. **

**For those of you have had read this and for the new people who are read this, I thought that you all should know that the whole thing has been rewritten. **

**I haven't written in about three years and I figured that this would help me get my groove back. **

**Anyways, I'm also working on adding a few more chapters to make a better ending for the story. **

**I hope you guys like FFSS version number two. **

**Please leave a review of any constructive criticism or anything else for the story. **

** Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>"I really don't see the point of this." I spoke, looking up from the table I was currently occupying. I didn't really want to be here and I really didn't see the point of my father, Haymitch Abernathy, dragging me to some sort of Capitol party to get sponsors. It wasn't like he was going to utilize his time for helping District Twelve's tributes anyway, he just wanted an excuse to drink.<p>

My dad looked over at me as he downed the last of his drinks, "I have to go help the tributes from twelve, you're going because I'm your father and I'm telling you that you're going."

"But why do I need to go?"

"Because you're charismatic." He spoke sarcastically as he stood, smiling over at me slightly.

I rolled my eyes at him, "Whatever."

"Come on, maybe you'll make a friend or something."

I snorted, shaking my head at him. Sometimes, his sarcasm was just a little too much when he was drunk, but I stood up anyway, pulling my hair from the messy ponytail it had stayed in for most of the day and walked into the large bedroom that the Capitol apartments provided. The Hunger Games were a big thing in the Capitol, complete with large viewing parties where the District mentors would try to obtain sponsors for their tributes. It was ridiculous really, the overbearing styles and personalities cramped into a large room, betting on who would die first, who would kill the most, and finally who would win. It was sickening, and I hated watching, So did my dad though…hence the drinking before it had even officially started.

"Hurry up Calla."

In the bedroom, I quickly changed from the pajamas that I'd left on from waking up that morning, throwing on a long sleeved green shirt and black pants before entering the living room again, "Let's get this over with."

"Don't sound so excited." My dad gave me a small, somewhat sad, smile before leading me out the front door and into the hallway of the apartment.

* * *

><p>"Chaff." My dad walked over to his old friend, the man with one hand and him embracing, leaving me standing in the crowd of Capitol people who were talking excitedly about the Games as if teenagers weren't about to be brutally murdered by each other. I had lost sight of them in a moment, the sea of people around me making it hard to see where anyone was and I sighed, leave it to my father to let me get lost in a group of Capitol people.<p>

I bit my lip, looking around for a moment to try to see where they went before finally giving up. I had just decided to see if I could slip back to the apartment when someone spoke behind me.

"You look a little lost." I turned to the sound of a male voice, coming face-to-face with a visually striking man about a year or two older than me. He had short bronze hair, sea green eyes, and tan skin…add the height difference between the two of us and I could definitely see that he was gorgeous.

"I'm not lost."

He laughed and put something in his mouth, chewing on it for a moment before speaking again, "You definitely could have fooled me."

"I'm not." I couldn't explain why I was acting so childish about this situation. I knew who this man was, he had won the games about two years ago and spent his time with the Capitol people on his time off. I wasn't stupid though, it was exactly his choice, but from what I'd seen of him, he liked to play games with people while he was mentoring, and I didn't really want be participate in it.

"Yeah." He popped something else into his mouth, "You want a sugar cube?"

I looked at him, trying to figure out what kind of morphling he was on as he held his hand out, showing the sugar cubes in his hand, "No thanks."

"Alright," he smiled, "I'm Finnick by the way."

It was as if he was hoping I'd be surprised at the sound of his name, but instead I nodded, "People call me Calla."

"That doesn't mean it's your name." He smiled at me again, liking he was suddenly beginning to enjoy himself now and I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes at him.

Instead, I bit my lip, embarrassed for a moment. I wasn't a big fan of my name and I only introduced myself as Calla to people, it wasn't often that they wanted to know what it was short for, "Callalily.

"Wow." He laughed, causing me to blush at the sound in embarrassment.

"Like I said, people call me Calla." I narrowed my eyes at him, "For good reason." F

"Callalily isn't that bad." Finnick shrugged at me, and then smiled again.

Instead of returning the smile, I crossed my arms defensively, "You haven't had to live with it for fifteen years."

Finnick shrugged in response, "Maybe not, but it's still a nice name."

"Calla." Raising an eyebrow, I looked over at my dad as he put a hand on my shoulder, "How are you doing Finnick?"

"Haymitch." Finnick nodded and then turned as one of the overly flamboyant Capitol women called his name, "Nice to meet you Calla."

"Yeah, you too."

He walked away, leaving my dad and I alone, "What was that?"

"Apparently, I looked lost." I shrugged.

He laughed and I huffed at him as he steered me through the crowd back to where he and Chaff had been standing, "Well, that's nothing new."

"Thanks dad."

* * *

><p>"Damn it!" My dad took another shot of whiskey, or whatever it was that he was drinking, trying to calm himself down after watching both of Twelve's tributes get killed by the Careers. I let him be, knowing that this was hard for him. Twelve hadn't won the Games since he had, and after so many years of being forced to watch kids die in the arena, it was a wonder to me how he was only a drunk.<p>

"Dad, I'm going to step out for a while." I walked to the door, stepping out as he threw his bottle at the opposite wall, hearing the glass go in all directions.

I sighed and left, walking through the hallway to the end where a large window sat in the wall, showing the city of the Capitol where bright lights hid the stars and the moon that I was suddenly longing to see. People were partying still in the building across the street, their music pounding through the streets and drowning out ever other sound; they were all still excited about the beginning of the Games and their earlier betting sprees. How many of those people inside that party had profited from the deaths of District Twelve's tributes?

"How angry is your dad?"

I turned, once again looking up into the sea green eyes that belonged to Finnick, "He's pretty pissed."

"He seemed like it earlier when District One killed you're male tribute. She seems vicious."

I nodded, sitting down and looking out the window, hearing the sounds of the party still going outside, "He's sort of over this whole thing."

"I would be too if I'd been mentoring as long as he had." Finnick sat down beside me, pulling his knees up to his chest.

"What're you doing?" I had come out here to be alone and now this guy was ruining the whole thing. Why couldn't he just go back to watching his tributes?

"Sitting here," he laughed at me, "what does it look like?"

"Maybe I came out here to be alone."

Surprisingly, Finnick didn't shot me a smile or laugh, instead those sea green eyes seemed to turn darker, "Maybe I did too."


	2. 2: Finnick - Age 19

I really did not want to be going back to the Capitol; it just seemed so redundant now that I was spending more time with Snow's clients than I did with the tributes that I was supposed to be mentoring for the Games.

"Have you seen the recap of the Reapings?" Mags walked into the train compartment where I was sitting, having a conversation with District Four's tributes. The boy, Seth Waters, was sitting stiffly in a chair, looking like he wanted to be in the arena already, and after seeing how quickly he had volunteered, I could see why. He thought that he could win, but that was the problem with most of the Careers, the ones who thought they were automatically going to win were always the ones who died badly. The girl, on the other hand, looked positively horrified. I didn't know who she was, but I did know that she was only about fourteen and she definitely wouldn't be with the Careers. I felt bad for her; no fourteen year old should have to go through what he was about to…

I shook my head, watching as Mags turned the television on and Caesar Flickerman, who was sporting bright orange hair, began smiling brightly at the camera as the recap began. Districts One and Two were easy to guess, both had two volunteers just like they'd had every other year and District Three's tributes consisted of a mousy fifteen year old girl and an unimpressive seventeen year old boy. District Four's time slot and went…but after that, I stopped paying attention. I was using my time to focus on how to help out tributes, especially the girl. But, as I was coming up with a solution, District Twelve came into view and I looked at the screen.

Haymitch had been telling me, the last time we saw each other, that he was worried about this being his daughter's year. He knew she couldn't stay out of the arena forever…Snow had allowed him to raise the little girl solely for the fact to take her away from him in the most brutal way possible, letting the man get attached to her had also been exactly what the president wanted. So when they showed their escort, some gaudy woman with a matching pink wig and outfit name Effie Trinket, I started paying more attention, mentally crossing my fingers that it wasn't her.

Effie started with the old "Ladies First" thing and moved to the first glass bowl, slipping her hand into it and grabbing a slip of paper. It took her a moment to open it and as she worked on that, the camera panned across the stage, showing Haymitch and the mayor before moving across the silent crowd of District Twelve and then…

"Callalily Abernathy." Effie's obnoxious Capitol accent snorted out her name, treating it as if the name belonged more to a fiction character rather than the daughter of District Twelve's only mentor…and the girl that had listened to me talk about nightmares and every other little thing that popped into my head for the last two years.

The shot moved to show Calla, her long brown hair left down and cascading over the shoulders of the blue dress she was wearing. The close-up of her face gave everyone a clear view of her gray eyes that clearly expressed worry and fear until she took a deep breath and changed her expression to one of indifference. She walked to the stage, her head held high like this was some sort of honor as they showed Haymitch, whose face was a mixture of rage and fear, and then Effie moved to the next bowl.

"Now, for the gentlemen." She pulled another slip out, smiling a gigantic, gruesome, smile that was so obviously fake that it made me want to vomit, "Mitchell Pine."

The boy walked up to the stage, shoulders squared, gray eyes hard and brown hair messy. He and Calla shook hands and then, suddenly, Caesar Flickerman had returned.

"I certainly don't envy Haymitch Abernathy this year. District Twelve hasn't had a victor since the second Quarter Quell and there seemed to be some menacing looking kids from the other Districts this year." With that the screen went black…and I felt my chest clinch into a tight knot.

Calla had to win…I wasn't going to lose the only confidant that I had. The only girl that didn't look at me my like I was some pretty faced whore. Calla was mine and I wasn't going to lose her to President Snow's Games.

* * *

><p>"This is utterly disgusting."<p>

I smiled slightly as I heard Calla's voice echo through the crowd of horses, tributes, and the occasional mentor or stylist. However, when I found her in the crowd, my smile faltered a little before falling completely off my face. She was painted black…and was wearing absolutely nothing else. I could only imagine what Haymitch was thinking, but he wasn't around and I could only hope that he wasn't somewhere drinking…she needed someone to lean on through this whole ordeal that was sober.

She looked beside her as Mitchell walked to her side, equally as naked and painted black. Mitchell towered over her in a threatening way, and he was being very obvious about _not _staring at her face.

"What's the point of this?" his voice was deep and gruff, and as he looked at her, Called crossed her arms in an attempt to cover her breasts.

She looked up at him though, trying to ignore what he was looking at, "This introduces us to sponsors…which we need."

Mitchell shook his head and looked away, leaving Calla to look around the room herself. She eventually caught my eye and gave me a small, embarrassed smile as I quirked an eyebrow. I really wanted to find out who had created her non-existent outfit and force them to allow her to wear clothes…something to cover her up a little before she was forced to expose herself to all of Panem and the Capitol. I was beginning to wonder if Snow had planned the outfit, or lack thereof, himself; maybe he might just gain another person to do for him what he forced me to do and showing them everything that Calla had to offer was a good way to get the bids going.

"Places," someone shouted, taking me away from my thoughts for a moment as I turned back to Seth and the girl.

But, even as I paid attention to my tributes, making sure they stood and acted in the exact way that Mags wanted them, I saw from the corner of my eye as Mitchell and Calla boarded their own chariot, both trying not to touch each other as they stood there awkwardly. When I was finally happy with my tributes, I backed away, already heading to the underground training center as I tried to think of some sort of plan to get Calla alone so I could speak to her.

* * *

><p>With the tributes and mentors filling the room that everyone had arrived in, it took me a few minutes to find Calla. Haymitch was standing with her, and I was glad to see that she now had a blanket covering up everything that had been exposed. Her father was, surprisingly, sober and I was glad for that, she didn't need a drunk mentor.<p>

"I really don't think your outfit showed enough." I said, approaching the short, brown haired girl.

Calla sent me an embarrassed glare, she had rubbed most of the black paint off of her face and it helped me see the faint blush that had risen to her cheeks, "Watch it, Odair."

"I'm just saying. They could have shown a lot more skin. In fact, they really should have…I'm sure all of Panem would have eaten that up." I smiled slightly as her blush grew more pronounced, "How're you holding up Callie?"

She shrugged and gripped the blanket around her even tighter, "I suppose I've been better."

I nodded, watching as mentors began escorting their tributes to their respective floors and then noticed that Mags had already taken the tributes to ours. The room thinned out quickly and Haymitch led Mitchell up to their floor, nodding to me as I lightly grabbed Calla's arm, ignoring the paint that got stuck to my hand, as we were left alone.

"You're going to win this, do you hear me?" I paused, suddenly feeling very desperate, "I don't care what you have to do, but you're going to win this."

Calla gave me her signature nervous giggle that she always seemed to provide when she was stressed, "There's absolutely no way Finn. You saw that guy from Nine, he's going to chew me up and spit me right back out."

"No he won't. You can do this." I could see in her eyes that Calla didn't believe me, could see that she was already readying herself for what she thought was soon to be a brutal end. So…I did the only thing I could to convince her.

I leaned down, pressing my lips onto hers, expertly kissing her. This was different from the unwanted kisses from the clients Snow always seemed to line up for me, this was electrifying, much better than the drunken kisses of late nights that I tried so hard to forget. This was something that I always wanted to remember; especially if things did go the way that Calla seemed to so strongly believe.

"Win for me." I pulled away from her, my green eyes finding her stormy ones before I pushed her toward the elevator, "You understand me? Win for me."

Calla bit her lip and nodded in understanding before she entered the elevator and pressed twelve, leaving me alone in the room that so many lost tributes had once occupied.


	3. 3: Callalily - Age 17

"_The victor of the 69__th__ Hunger Games is Callalily Abernathy."_ Seneca Crane's voice sounded in the arena, echoing slightly as through the snowy arena.

I felt sick, having just killed the girl from One…and I still felt the left over sensation of the snakes that had inhabited the arena. I could remember tributes from previous Games having cheered when there were announced the winner of the Games…me, however, I just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry.

* * *

><p>"Callie." Finnick walked toward me, looking at the blue dress that I had been put in, the prep team had painted some kind of weird, blue, flower on my face, and I felt completely different than how I really was. This whole dress up and act happy bit that I had to perform was not helping me.<p>

"Hey Finn." I gave him a small smile and felt him pull me into his chest where he proceeded to place his face in my hair before giving a sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?" He pulled away from me, searching my eyes.

Was I okay? Would I be able to go in front of these people and act like I was so happy that I'd killed three people in the arena? The answer to the first question was obvious. I wasn't okay; I didn't think that I would ever be okay again. I could still feel the sensation of stabbing the District One girl in the chest, throwing all of my weight into it before she could aim her throwing knife at me. I could see the knife that I'd thrown at the District Nine boy in anger.

I would never be myself again. I would have to live with the knowledge that I was a murderer for the rest of my life.

"That was a stupid question."

I gave him a small, nervous giggle, "Yeah, it was."

"Everything's going to be okay."

No it wouldn't.

"I know."

He kissed me again, a quick, soft kiss, and then pulled away, "I'll be in the audience alright, right next to your dad."

"Okay."

* * *

><p>"Can you tell me what compelled you to try and win the Games?"<p>

I blinked and found Finnick in the audience, sitting right where he promised me, and when I went to voice the truth; I thought about everything that he'd told me over the years…if I told them the truth it would just be get him into trouble. So, I gave him, and my dad, a small smile and then turned back to Caesar.

"Well…the real reason was because of my dad. I'm the only family he had left." I paused for a moment, "and someone has to keep him in line."

The crowd laughed, my dad and Finnick laughing with them, but I could see the tightness around my father's eyes and the way the smile that Finnick was sending me didn't reach his eyes.

Caesar Flickerman nodded, "I remember when your father was up here himself after winning the second Quarter Quell, it seems fitting that you should follow in his footsteps."

I smiled at him slightly, remembering to play the charming little girl, "We both know I'm much more charming than he ever was."

Flickerman laughed again, "That's very true. You're much prettier too."

"Well thank you Caesar."

"Now, let's watch some of the recaps from your Games."

We turned to the large television behind us as they started showing the beginning of the games where I ran away from the Cornucopia, picking up a bag and hightailing it away from the bloodbath that had been going on behind me. I hadn't even seen Mitchell, but he had run right to the Cornucopia, going exactly against what my dad had warned us against. The boy from Four had slit Mitchell's throat before he was able to pick anything up. I had to stop myself from cringing.

"Can you tell me a little about the other tribute from Twelve?"

_The other tribute from Twelve? _Those words echoed in my head, it was like he didn't think he had met a brutal end, like it hadn't really happened.

There was something seriously wrong with the Capitol.

"Mitchell was my age. He worked in the mines out of town. Other than that I didn't know him that well. But in school, he was pretty popular. The girls loved him. "

The crowd laughed, but even as disgust ran through me, I continued smiling and I could hear my dad's words from earlier echoing in my head, _just smile and look pretty for the camera. They don't give a shit about anything else._

The clips continued to the third day where I was sitting high in a tree, thankful for the environment past the fence in Twelve and for Haymitch teaching me how to climb trees. I had just killed the eighteen year old from Nine and all I wanted to do was wake up and realize that this whole thing was just some kind of sick nightmare. I looked exhausted in the video and way too eager to just 'accidentally' fall out of the tree when a capsule had fallen into my lap, the parachute covered if for a moment before I pushed it away and opened the capsule, in the clip, it showed me simply staring at the contents of it for a moment before smiling and pulling out a slip of paper. Finnick had sent me a piece of District Four bread. The slip of paper had said the last words he'd said to me before going into the arena.

Win for me.

And I did.

* * *

><p><em>It was strange to think that growing up in District Twelve and hanging around the Seam that I was afraid of snakes, but waking up to find a giant, poisonous, looking snake thing in my lap was not fun. I shrieked as I saw it and batted the creature away from me with my hand; but as I released myself from the branch that I had inhabited the night, I saw even more making their way toward me. <em>

_I cursed, grabbing my things and jumping from the branch and dropping into a roll so I wouldn't hurt myself to much. As I stood up, now on solid ground, I ran in the opposite direction of the snakes, toward the clearing where the Cornucopia sat. The Gamemakers were pushing the tributes together like they did every year when the Games got stale. _

_As I ran though, I couldn't seem to distance myself enough from the snakes behind me, and when the first one bit me, I used the knife on my belt to cut it in half. They were quicker than normal snakes, not that I was really surprised; they had a knack of putting any and every kind of mutt in the Games, I just couldn't understand why they chose to use snakes now. Thye descended on me, faster than I could get them off of me, and as I fell to my knees because of their venom, I heard someone screaming. _

"Callie. Callie, wake up. It's just a bad dream, you're okay." My dad was yelling, something he usually only did when he was drunk. It took me a moment to process what he was saying, but when I did, I stopped screaming; having just noticed that the shrill sound was coming from me.

I also noticed in that moment that I was crying, I latched onto my dad and cried into his chest. I hadn't had nightmares since I was twelve and that was induced by my first reaping.

"Everything's okay Callie, nothing's happening…you're safe." He stroked my hair, letting me calm down. This wasn't usually the way that my dad worked, normally he would have said something sarcastic by now, but I was thankful that he hadn't. What I really wanted though was to see Finnick, but my dad and I were back in Twelve and I wouldn't see him until the Victory Tour, so for now, my dad, who wasn't that good at the whole consoling thing, would have to do.


	4. 4: Finnick - Age 20

I hated President Snow, hated what he made me do with people from the Capitol, and now hated him more than ever as Calla was led into the party by some man with blood red tattoos on his face. Calla looked beautiful in a strapless, floor length, red dress; but I could see the shadows under her eyes, beneath the makeup that had been caked onto her face, and no one could have hidden that tired look in her eyes.

Haymitch had told me that she had been having nightmares, I'd had plenty of them myself, but she didn't look like she was handling them that well. I wanted to go over to her and hug her, pull her into a protective embrace and never let her go, but I knew that would just bring Snow's leash around her that much tighter. He'd already blown up the mines that had held her friend and his father, all because she had refused to work with Snow's clients anymore last year. If I went over there now, there was no telling what Snow would do to Haymitch…or even to her.

I continued watching, seeing the way that she was hanging on the guy's arm. The whole thing was an act of course, I knew from experience, but I could also tell because whenever the guy's attention was elsewhere, her smile faltered and she downed another glass of champagne.

She looked around as the guy spoke to someone else in a brightly colored suit, her eyes catching mine in the crowd. I nodded to her, gaining an embarrassed smile before she turned her attention back to her date.

Fuck President Snow.

* * *

><p>"Finnick, last night was…" the woman spoke beside me, a large smile on her face as she trailed off slightly, "amazing."<p>

I didn't like how she said my name, the way was sort of snorted it like a line of cocaine…it was nothing like the smooth way Calla said my name. Nothing like the soft, sometimes angry way of speaking that she had.

I looked over at her, giving the woman a wide smile, "It was."

I had long since stopped trying to remember their names, it only brought more anger and pain when I did know them and this one was no different. It was sad really, the woman could have been quite attractive, almost beautiful even, but with all of the Capitol's surgeries that she'd obviously gone through, she didn't look human anymore. Especially since her skin was dyed a sickly green.

It was nothing like the normal, tan, skin that belonged to the eighteen year old girl who had been on my mind since I saw her last night. The woman beside me had eyes that were the color yellow, like an unnatural sun…while Calla had her normal, stormy gray eyes that constantly reminded me of being on a boat at sea during a thunderstorm. Calla didn't cling like this woman had either.

"I have to leave, but, feel free to make yourself at home okay." The woman smiled brightly again and left the bed, leaving me to sigh and stare up at the ceiling. I wouldn't be here for very long after she left. I was meeting Calla for lunch before she went back to District Twelve, I wanted to make sure that she was alright, with the nightmares from the Games, the death of her friend, and having to deal with Snow's secret business deals; I was sure that she needed a break from it all.

"Bye, Finnick." The woman waved cheerily and left me alone in her apartment, leaving me to continue staring at the ceiling for a while longer as I let last night's memories engulf me like an undertow in the waves. This was something I always did, let the memories overtake me before storing them somewhere in a vault in the back of my mind and didn't think about them again until some sick and twisted part of my head unlocked them while I was asleep.

* * *

><p>"Haymitch says that you've been having nightmares." I looked over at her as we walked down the street, passing flamboyantly dressed Capitol people as we spoke. Calla was back in her normal clothing today. A green tank top and a pair of black pants even though it was hot outside, and she was standing dangerously close to the road as cars passed by quickly, I wanted to pulled her away from the road, but we were trying very conspicuously not to touch each other.<p>

Calla gave a small grimace and shrugged, "I'll admit that I haven't been sleeping soundly…but if I remember correctly, you have nightmares too."

I did still have nightmares, all the Victors did. But, I seemed to be handling them a lot better than she was. Though we were still in out Capitol personas, I could see that she was tired. Her shoulders were slumped and she looked at the ground as she walked, keeping her head down slightly as we walked.

"Yeah, I do." We fell silent, "When does your train leave?"

She wove around a Capitol man and then appeared back at my side, "Tonight at five."

"You sound excited."

Calla gave me her signature nervous giggle, "Well, it's exciting here, something's always going on. But I am excited about getting _away _from the people here. I'm also excited to get away from dad for a little while…he's been smothering lately, I can't even go to a different room without him 'casually' walking in with me; I absolutely hate it."

"He's just worried about you." Truthfully, I didn't think that sounded anything like the Haymitch I knew, but then again, I'd only seen him when he was mentoring and Calla was trying to entertain herself in the mentor room.

She sighed, "I hate making people worried."

"You're never _not _going to have people worried about you."

"Why's that?" Her gray eyes found mine, our eyes staring into each other's for a moment; thunderstorms melting into the sea before she gave me a small smile and blushed slightly.

I returned the smile, "Because, people care about you."

"And who would those people be?"

We stopped walking and I had an overwhelming need to grab her hands and pull her close, anything to get this scared girl to look at me, but I couldn't. We were in public in the Capitol.

"Me."

"You?" Her voice wasn't sarcastic, and I knew that she hadn't meant it as a question, but that slightly nervous giggle had came out at the same time, somehow turning that one word into a question, like she wasn't sure if I was joking with her or not about me caring about her. If she hadn't known me for as long as she had, Calla probably would have been in that predicament. I didn't seem like the caring type from what they showed on the Capitol televisions.

"Yeah, me." My hand went to reach for hers before I could stop it and suddenly her smaller hand was in mine. Her hand was soft, very different from my calloused hands, I liked the feel of it, "And your dad, and all of that guy's family."

"His name was Sterling Hawthorne." Calla grimaced and looked at the ground, "And, I'm pretty sure that his whole family wishes that I'd died in the Games."

I shook my head, "No they don't."

* * *

><p>"I'll see you in two months."<p>

Calla nodded and looked back at the bullet train behind her; her gray eyes expressing the torn feelings that were going through her head. She didn't really want to go, she'd expressed that during lunch…she didn't want to go back and see the faces of the families that had people die in that mine mishap. But she didn't want to stay here either; she didn't want to continue pretending that she was perfectly fine for the people of the Capitol.

I could see the latter winning out in her mind though, Calla wouldn't stay here; she couldn't. You can only pretend that you're okay for so long.

"Two months." Calla gave me a small smile and went to board the train, but I pulled her against me, pressing my lips to hers like I had the day they shown the tributes off the Capitol two years ago.

Once again, the feeling was electrifying, but we ended it quickly…Calla needed to go home.

"Be safe." I pressed my face into her hair, whispering the words in her ear before I let her board the train.

Calla smiled, "I'll see you in two months, Finn."

The doors closed the entrance to the train, the window on the door letting me see Calla for a moment before the train began moving and I was left alone at the station, my heart speeding away with the train.


	5. 5: Callalily - Age 23

"One District will be having a third Victor join them."

I sat with my dad, Peeta, and Katniss as we watched President Snow speak on the television, the large white flower that only slightly covered up the scent of blood, as always, present on the lapel of his jacket. He was smiling; his surgically enlarged lips making it seem more like a grimace. I hated this man, despised the way he treated people, and hated his attitude.

But, as he said those words all I could think was _of course._ I knew which District was going to have a third Victor join them, even as he turned to the bowl that had been brought to him filled with twelve strips of paper. I knew they all said the same thing, "And the District will be…" he paused, opening the folded piece of paper, "Twelve."

Haymitch sucked in a breath and stood up, leaving the room in search of something alcoholic. I sighed, not surprised at the turn of events as I looked at the two seventeen year olds that were still in the room, staring at the television in horror.

"I guess the three of us are going back into the arena then," I stood up as I spoke, glaring at the television in anger before I left the room. There was no way my father could handle being thrown back into the arena…and there was no way that I was going to let that happen.

* * *

><p>The people of District Twelve gathered in the square, all feeling out of place where no peacekeepers were recording their children to be placed in the Games. I spotted Gale with his siblings and sent him a small, embarrassed smile before looking away. I still felt guilty about the mine shaft his brother and father had been 'accidentally' blown up in. Katniss' father had been in there with them…and I didn't even want to think of all the other families from the Seam that had lost their only source of income because I had refused to be one of Snow's whores.<p>

I pushed the thought out of my mind, looking at my hands and finding interesting patterns in them as everyone quieted down and Effie Trinket got the Third Quarter Quell's reaping on a roll. Her, usually chipper smile was plastered on and absolutely fake, she wasn't very happy with the turn of events and I was absolutely positive that most of the Capitol felt the same way. Three of my clients had told me that there were complaints filed about the Quarter Quell this year…and Snow wasn't doing anything about it. Effie took a while to reach into the first bowl and grab a slip of paper where two female names occupied. It didn't matter who was chosen first though, I'd already made it clear to Katniss and Peeta. My father was not going back into that arena.

"Katniss Everdeen." Effie smiled and waited for Katniss to walk up to the stage before she moved to the second bowl and pulled out another slip, "Haymitch Abernathy."

My dad went to stand up, "I volunteer."

Peeta was quicker and passed my dad as he went up to the stage, waiting for Effie to move to the third bowl. I shot the boy a thankful look and he returned it with a nod before he turned his attention back to Katniss and Effie. That left two people in our lineup, and only one of them absolutely sure that they were going back in. My dad looked shaken and I couldn't decide if it was because of Peeta cutting off his booze supply or if he was just worrying about his new family…this was why I wasn't going to let him back in the arena, he could barely take care of mundane things by himself, how was I supposed to expect him to protect himself with people trying to kill him.

"And the third Tribute," Effie dumped the two names into one bowl and pulled a slip of paper out, "Callalily Abernathy."

* * *

><p>"I want you to make as many friends as possible." My dad spoke, sending the message to Katniss and Peeta more than to me.<p>

He and I had stayed up all night talking about a plan…a plan to get the rebellion truly going and to get the rest of the tributes out of the arena. I knew he hadn't told me everything, but that was probably a good thing.

The recaps were long over and as my dad addressed the other two; I spent my time thinking about Finnick. If anyone shouldn't be going back into the arena, it was him, but I knew that this was some sick and twisted joke for Snow, just like District Twelve having three former Victors thrown back was. He had looked exhausted during his reaping, and incredibly scared when Annie Cresta was chosen. My dad and I were the only two people on the train that knew the real reason behind his fear though. Annie was Finnick's first love, but after the 67th Games, when she had been a tribute and had watched as her District Four counterpart had been beheaded, the girl definitely went insane. I didn't blame her, if the roles had been reversed and I had had to watch Mitchell get beheaded in the Games, I probably would have gone insane too. However, Annie still thought that she was in the Games and sometimes didn't seem to remember Finnick, in fact, the first couple of times that he had gone to see the girl, she had tried to kill him.

But I also didn't help that Mags, the only person that had been like family to him after Snow had killed his family when he'd originally said no the President's proposal about whoring around to the highest bidder, had volunteered for the crazy young woman. Either way, Finnick was at risk of losing someone very dear to him.

I bit my lip and took a large sip of coffee before turning my attention back to Peeta and Katniss as they argued with my dad.

"Trust me you guys." I cut through the argument, "With these Victors, you're going to want more allies. Most of them have been mentoring for years; they're going to know things that the two of you put together don't."

"But we have you." Peeta spoke up, looking at me with a bit of childish defiance on his face.

I shook my head, "Not if you don't want allies. I already know who I'm teaming up with."

"And who would that be?" Katniss asked suspiciously.

I only shrugged, "You'll see when we get there."

With that, I stood up and left the train car, going to the bedroom in another car so I could think better without the two seventeen year olds that didn't know what they were doing continued arguing with my dad about technique.

* * *

><p>"The two of you look perfect." Cinna, the new stylist for Twelve smiled as he looked at Katniss and me.<p>

We were wearing black, floor length dresses, that would light up with synthetic fire when we pressed a button on our sleeves. I seriously wished that he had been the stylist for my Games, this was way better than being painted black with no other clothes on.

"When you're on the chariot, I want both of you to look ahead and act as if you're better than all of this, understand."

I nodded and waited behind as Katniss left for the holding pen, her makeup having already been finished.

"It's a shame you weren't around for the 69th Games." I spoke as Cinna began dabbing my face with makeup.

He laughed, "Yes, my outfit design would have been much better than just being painted black."

I walked to our chariot where Finnick and Katniss were standing. The District Four man was dressed very minimally, with only a fishing net covering very little of his lower body. I felt a blush creep into my cheeks at the sight and then watched as Finnick leaned in, totally screwing with Katniss. I stayed back for a moment until he pulled away, a large, triumphant smile on his face.

"Finnick, where _did _you get that outfit? I would absolutely love to borrow it sometime, considering how ravishing you look in it."

The sea-green eyed man turned toward my voice, a large smile on his face, "Hey Callie, you know, maybe we should swap outfits sometime. But I'm pretty sure that yours would look much better on my bedroom floor."

"Really?" I gave him a nervous giggle, "I guess it's too bad that we won't have that chance because I was just thinking the exact same thing about your outfit."

His face fell slightly, but he caught himself by holding out his hand, "Want a sugar cube, Callie? You know, people like us really should grab anything sweet when we get the chance."

I thought for a moment, catching the hidden meaning behind his words. He and I had never had the chance to say how we really felt for one another and now we were being thrown back into the arena where one or both of us could die at any minute. It was easy to see how he meant it, the way his eyes had stared right into mine pointedly and his face fell slightly. I knew Finnick almost as well as I knew myself, and it was easy to spot any hidden meaning in his words. But this time, instead of the sexual meanings he usually threw into everything he said, he was completely serious. And, it was that fact, the knowledge that he was being completely serious, that scared me.

"Why not?" I shrugged, plucking a cube from his hand and placing it in my mouth. The sugar melted on my tongue and I smiled at him, remembering him performing this when I was fifteen, "Thanks Finn."

Katniss, who had silently stood there through our chat, looked confused and I laughed at the expression on her face. I was falling back into an old habit of mine, pretending everything was fine in front of the people that were surly watching us for President Snow. I'd have to find some way to talk to Finnick alone, let him know everything that I'd been too afraid to say to him over the years. Finnick joined in quickly, our laughs ringing through the holding pen. We stopped as Peeta entered, moving away from the chariot and the people around us, trying to find a slightly secluded area where Finnick and I could talk privately.

"How've you been Callie?" Finnick was suddenly serious again, still ignoring the things that we had been avoiding for so long. How could we voice the things we wanted to if we were so afraid of them?

I giggled at the situation, unable to stop the nervous habit as he looked at me. Though I hadn't been able to stop it, he smiled at the sound, but it didn't reach his eyes, "I've been better."

"You know the plan?"

I nodded, "The important things, yeah."

"Okay."

"Places."

Finnick and I looked at each other, and, like my first Games, he pulled me into him as I went to walk away, pressing his soft lips to mine. The room, that had been so loud before, fell completely silent as Finnick pulled away and allowed me to walk back to Twelve's chariot. People were staring, tributes and Capitol workers alike.

"Well, I think we know who your ally is." Katniss looked at me suspiciously for a moment as I boarded the chariot beside her.

I only shrugged, "Finnick is one of them."


	6. 6: Finnick - Age 25

Katniss was escorted out of the room, Haymitch cradling his face as the cuts started to bleed. She was being childish really; Haymitch had had to leave his own daughter just to make sure they had gotten the Mockingjay. He didn't need any added stress to that…he already felt guilt enough.

"She's going to be okay Haymitch…" I spoke, trying to convince myself the same thing, "Peeta will be too."

He nodded and stood up, his hand still covering the cuts on his face as he left the room to get bandaged up. I knew what he was thinking though, he wanted to drown everything out with alcohol and in that moment I wanted the exact same thing.

* * *

><p>I'd know during that first day in the arena that Katniss truly did love Peeta; it was obvious when I'd had to restart his heart and Calla had tried to comfort her. But, with Peeta actually gone, she'd had to be kept sedated for a while, and now she was finally being released from the hospital that District Thirteen had. I was staying, still trying to accept the fact that Calla wasn't here. After all Snow had put her through, she was even deeper in his clutches than she'd been originally.<p>

I hadn't seen Haymitch since we'd arrived in Thirteen and I was still wondering he'd found any alcohol or not. I wanted to numb myself from the memories and the fears of what was happening to her right now that continued to haunt me.

If we'd had just saved Peeta instead, we could have saved Calla too. And that made me angry at Katniss.

"Any word?" I looked over at Haymitch, the man looked sick and his gray eyes were bloodshot. I was still trying to decide whether it was from crying, lack of sleep, or just lack of alcohol; but I was glad he'd finally come to see me. The situation wasn't the same for us, but we both were having trouble with the fact that Calla could be dead and we wouldn't even know.

He shook his head slowly, "Not yet. We already know everything that they've been reporting back to us."

"Then they're not looking hard enough." I was getting angry with the people of Thirteen, it had been weeks since we had gotten here and they had yet to make a rescue party to get our people out from there. They had made no effort to save Calla, "When are they going to do something about it?"

I tied a piece of rope in a knot, and, without looking at it, unraveled it before tying another one. Calle had told me to do this one year, had said that I probably just needed something to do with my hands. I had to admit that it worked sometimes…now; however, it was just making me worry about Calla even more.

Haymitch shrugged unhappily, "Coin doesn't see a point to it."

"Screw Coin."

* * *

><p>"Katniss," I ran down the hall, trying to catch the Mockingjay before she left completely. They had told me that I wasn't mentally capable to go with her, "Katniss!"<p>

I stopped in front of the elevator and watched Katniss' face as she took in my appearance. I'd definitely let myself go, if Calla had been here she would have gotten annoyed and told me to get my act together…but she wasn't here. Wearing only a hospital gown and slippers, it had to be a shock to the seventeen year old girl before me, less than a month ago she had seen me wearing fishing net over my crotch and rocking it.

"They wouldn't let me go with you. I told them I was fine, but they won't even let me ride in the hovercraft." Calla would have hit me, not only had I been useless lately, now I was acting like a spoiled five year old.

Katniss smacked herself in the forehead, "Oh, I forgot. It's this stupid concussion. I was supposed to tell you to report to Beetee in Special Weaponry. He's designed a new trident for you."

"Really? What's it do?" My ears perked up at the word 'trident'. I hadn't seen one in weeks and I missed the familiar feel of one in my hands.

She shrugged, reminding me of Calla, "I don't know. But, if it's anything like my bow and arrows, you're going to love it." She paused, "You'll need to train with it though."

"Right of course." I was excited, if I could train with it, then maybe they would let me go on a rescue mission, "I guess I better get down there."

As I turned to go see Beetee, Katniss stopped me, "Finnick? Maybe some pants?"

I looked down, once again seeing myself wearing the hospital gown and slippers; I smiled, thinking of Calla's outfit before the Quarter Quell and the words I had said to her.

_"I'm sure yours would look better on my bedroom floor."_

Ripping off the hospital gown, I saw Calla's face for a moment before it shifted back to Katniss, "Why? Do you find this," I struck the most provocative pose I could think of, "distracting?"

The Girl on Fire laughed, "I'm only human, Odair."

And with that, the elevator door closed, leaving me to find some clothes to wear before I headed down to see Beetee.


	7. 7: Callalily - Age 23

It was white…to white in the asylum-like cell they were holding us in. Peeta, Johanna, Annie, and I had all been placed in the same cell, but some of us were worse off than others. They'd hijacked Peeta and had convinced him that Katniss was some sort of mutt; he'd been trying to get his shackles off for days, his wrists were bloody and it was running down his arms and into his blond hair. Johanna looked horrible too; they'd shaved our heads because the smell of burnt hair wasn't favored here in the Capitol. Screaming bloody murder, however, was perfectly fine though…they seemed to enjoy that.

Annie looked fine, however, they hadn't really done anything to her. She was already crazy, they couldn't figure out how to make it worse.

She screamed a lot though, especially when Johanna or I were alternating between it. Annie also had a crazy look in her eyes sometimes, like she was in another place. Finnick had told me that she relieved her Games, but unlike the two of us, she didn't just relive them at night. She relived them at every waking moment too. I would have killed myself if that had been my fate.

I was getting angry with my dad and the District Thirteen. They knew we were here, knew something was going on, but no one seemed to think we were worth any time. They were lucky that Peeta was the only one hijacked…so far at least, looking across from me, I saw the blond teenager, his eyes that were normally so caring were angry now, and it was only toward one person. I knew the old Peeta was still there though, I saw traces of it sometimes, those traces showed the fear and worry that he would have felt if they hadn't hijacked him. I missed him, and I worried that he wouldn't be okay again.

"Peeta," he was thrashing again, the scabs on his wrists opening up, "Stop."

Our eyes met and he calmed for a moment before starting with more energy than before. I sighed in response and looked away, unable to watch the boy's futile attempts of escape.

* * *

><p>Electricity combined with water was horrifying. I knew that they weren't trying to get information anymore; they just wanted to hurt us now. Breaking to the surface of the small, deep, pool, I looked for Johanna, hoping that she was okay. I didn't think that I had enough strength to get her.<p>

I counted to five, taking a deep breath, about to go underwater to find her when it started again. I let out a loud, blood curdling scream, taken by surprise at the sudden pain. Thrashing at the water, I felt myself go under, unable to think calmly to get the surface for air. The water burned my throat as I unconsciously closed my eyes and let out another, albeit soundless, scream.

* * *

><p>"Don't die on me, damn it, Calla."<p>

Someone was pounding on my chest and yelling at me, but I couldn't make myself open my eyes, couldn't breathe. My lungs still felt like they were being filled with water, but I knew that wasn't the case…someone was yelling. Or maybe they'd finally driven me insane like Annie.

"Breathe Calla…now." The voice, now sounding a bit familiar, was begging now, bringing me toward the sound, making me focus on the noise, trying to do as it said.

They were still pounding on my chest, still trying to get me to get the water out of my lungs and, eventually, I coughed, water coming out of my mouth and falling into my face. I opened my eyes, seeing my dad leaning down, a frantic look in his gray eyes.

"Calla?"

"Dad?" my voice was hoarse, and I was still coughing out water as I tried to catch my breath. I could hear Peeta yelling in the distance, but it wasn't the screaming that I had become accustomed to, this was something about Katniss…and it was angry, not the loving tone he had used at the beginning of this whole venture.

My father gave a sigh of relief and watched as someone picked me up. I looked over to see the face of Gale, his eyes looking over at Peeta before finding my face and giving me a small smile, "You look horrible Calla."

* * *

><p>"Calla!" Finnick ran into the hospital room, his sea-green eyes lighting up as I slowly sat up, cringing as I moved.<p>

He hugged me lightly before pulling back and placing his lips on mine, pressing roughly to my lips. I laughed slightly into the kiss, nervous all of a sudden as he placed his hand on the back of my shaved head, and he pulled back, his eyes searching my face as I blushed.

"How's Johanna?"

"Unconscious."

I nodded and smiled slightly as Finnick finagled his way onto the hospital bed, somehow getting me to sit between his legs with my back against his chest. I looked up at him, ignoring the pain in my neck as he leaned down and kiss me again. "I was worried about you."

"You're always worried about me." I mumbled, looking at the wall across from us, "You don't think about yourself…dad already told me everything."

He grimaced and held my hands, "Yeah."

We fell silent and Finnick played with my hands, "They hijacked Peeta."

"We know. He attacked Katniss when Haymitch took her to see him."

"That was stupid for dad to do."


	8. 8: Finnick - Age 25

_Annie's eyes were crazy, they were searching for things that weren't in front of her, trying to find something that wasn't there. _

_ "Annie?" Tentatively, I touched her arm, trying to bring her out of the Games, trying to let her know that she was safe now, _

_ I didn't know that touching her was a mistake until she had me pinned to a wall, a scalpel that someone had carelessly left in the room pressed against my neck. _

_ "Annie." I didn't want to push her away from me, wouldn't have dreamed about it before, but this wasn't the same girl that I'd grown up with and had tried to protect…this wasn't Annie._

My eyes flew open, showing a hospital room and it took me a minute to realize that the room wasn't meant for me. The person that this room currently belonged to was still asleep in my lap, her shaved head lying on my chest. Someone had turned off the lights and put a blanket over our legs. I suspected that it had been Haymitch, but I couldn't be sure, so I let it alone.

I turned my attention to the girl in my arms. Call didn't look good, Haymitch had told me what had happened before they found her, and it made me want to kill Snow even more. But I also wanted to make him pay for what he'd done to us…maybe we could stick him in a pool of water and electrocute him. Let the man know what it felt like. I grimaced and stored the idea away for later, deciding to talk to Katniss about it…she would probably agree with me.

"Finn?" Calla yawned and lifted her head from my chest, her gray eyes finding mine through the darkness of the hospital room.

"What Callie?" I was whispering and I wasn't sure why, but Calla didn't seem to mind.

"You okay?" she whispered too, and I smiled at her, moving to brush her hair behind her ear before I realized that she didn't have any right now.

I nodded and moved the hand I was going to brush her non-existent hair with on her knee, rubbing circles on it with my thumb, "Just a nightmare. You should go back to sleep Callie."

"Are you going to stay here?" she mumbled the question and I smiled in response, kissing the top of her head.

"I'm never going to leave you again."

Calla seemed happy with the answer, and she snuggled onto my chest again, "I love you."

I was silent, my heart clinching in surprise. I knew what to say back to her; had wanted to say it since she was seventeen and had been thrown into the arena. It was strange though, I had always imagined that I would say it first…and they definitely weren't under these circumstances. But, times weren't ideal for us now, so I took what I could get.

"I love you too, Callie." I spoke finally, smiling as the words came out of my mouth and Calla nuzzled my chest before she fell asleep.

* * *

><p>"All I'm saying is that I don't want to sit around here while everyone else is out there fighting. So I'm not staying." Calla was arguing with Haymitch, her voice getting louder as she got angrier.<p>

I held back, watching the two yell at each other, surprised. The two didn't normally fight like this, at least from what I'd seen over the years, but Calla wasn't going to back down on this…and neither was Haymitch.

"Yes you are."

They were arguing over the fact that Calla wanted to start going to training, she wanted to go with everyone when we left to take the Capitol. I had mixed feelings about the whole ordeal. On one hand, I understood that she wanted to help, Snow had had her tortured…but on the other hand, I didn't want her in anymore danger than she already had been. I wanted her to be safe, and she couldn't be if we were on some mission.

Calla huffed and ran a hand through her growing hair. It was still short, but it was coming back, becoming curly. I liked it short, she looked both dangerous and beautiful with how it looked now, but it wasn't the same Calla with her hair that way. She had changed enough after her Games, and she'd changed even more when they rescued everyone.

She was more venerable now, her nightmares, which I hadn't known that much about before, were sometimes excruciating and she would scream like she was still in that pool getting electrocuted. Sometimes it was hard to get her to eat…hell it was hard to get her out of bed and into the public that was District Thirteen. I worried that if she went with us, it would end with something like that, all of her will would disappear one morning and whoever she was working with would just leave her. I wasn't going to lose anymore of her to Snow, I'd already lost enough of her as it was.

"No, I'm not and there's nothing that you can do about it. Cressida and Plutarch both agree that the rebellion needs as many healthy and young Victors as possible. I can help them." Her voice had turned soft and pleading, almost willing Haymitch to understand why she needed to go, "And I want to prove to Snow that he didn't win. I'm alive and I'm going to help take him down."

Her father's eyes softened a bit, surprising me. He understood why she wanted to go too, but he was also so worried about the state that she had been in lately that he was probably thinking the same thing I was.

If that happened, Haymitch would be sure to kill every single person that had left her behind.

"I'm going." She spoke again, her voice both pleading and firm, like she was trying to convince herself more than her father.

Haymitch nodded at her, agreeing with her now before she left happily, going to training. He turned to look at me, "If she doesn't start eating…or getting better, she'd not going."

"Alright."


	9. 9: Finnick - Age 17

I walked into the room, looking through the crowd and finding Mags, standing with Chaff. The woman caught my eye and smiled before turning back to the man before her as Haymitch came to greet them. I looked around, trying to find someone to talk to before I had to meet my client for the night, for my first time here with Snow forcing me to have clients, I was certainly popular…and it disgusted me.

Still looking around, I spotted a girl, looking almost exactly like Haymitch, who seemed just about as lost as I felt. So, taking a detour to grab a handful of sugar cubes, I walked over to the girl.

"You look a little lost." I came up behind her, causing her to turn around and look up at me. Her eyes were gray; a common sight for the people of District Twelve, her hair was straight, curling slightly at the ends. Her eyes widened in surprised and she looked me up and down, her face heating up in a blush.

"I'm not lost."

I laughed and popped a sugar cube into my mouth, chewing on it as I looked at her face. It was defiant as she spoke to me, her eyes melting into a hard look before turning to one of confusion as she watched me eat the sugar cube.

"You definitely could have fooled me."

Her eyes returned to that hard look, reminding me of a hurricane out on the sea, "I'm not."

"Yeah." I ate another cube of sugar and then held my hand out, feeling rude, "Oh, want a sugar cube?"

I couldn't read the expression on her face, but it was a similar one that I'd given one of the homeless people in Four once, not pitiful, but almost disgusted, "No thanks."

"Alright, I'm Finnick by the way." I smiled at her, enjoying the small game that I was playing with her. She didn't seem surprised when I said my name though, and it saddened me a little, I was looking forward to the surprised look on her face that didn't show.

"People call me Calla."

"That doesn't mean it's your name." I shot back at her.

She bit her lip cutely, "Callalily."

"Wow." I laughed finding the odd name quite fitting for the girl in front of me.

"Like I said, people call me Calla." Her eyes narrowed in response to my comment, taking it in the wrong context, "For good reason."

"Callalily isn't that bad." In fact I liked it. It was odd and very much like her eyes…uncommon. Even though the gray was a common eye color in District Twelve, there was something different in them from what I'd seen from the other tributes and people I'd met while on my Victory tour. Maybe it was just the way that they seemed to show me what she was thinking at the moment that intrigued me the most about them though.

"You haven't had to live with it for fifteen years."

So she was fifteen, she didn't seem like she was that young, but then again, she was the daughter of a Victor, and she didn't seem like the spoiled type. I shrugged at her comment, giving her a small laugh, "Maybe not."

"Calla." One of her eyebrows lifted as she turned to the sound of another voice. The man, Haymitch, put a hand on her shoulder, "How are you doing Finnick?"

Her father looked at me, a concerned look on his face. Mags had told him, she trusting the District Twelve man, but I hadn't had much interaction with him to know why.

"Haymitch." I nodded to him and then turned as a woman, probably my client for the night, called my name, "Nice meeting you Calla."

I walked away, leaving the girl with her father as I walked over to a tattooed woman that was sporting a yellow wig to match Caesar Flickerman's. She really disgusted me, like the other people who paid for me to sleep with them and hang on their arms for the night.

I hated the Capitol.

* * *

><p>I walked out into the hallway of the apartment Mags and I were currently sharing, glad to have been able to get off the hook for the night because of how busy the Games had gotten on the first night. Both of Twelve's kids were gone, and I was wondering how Haymitch was taking it, wondering what Calla had thought about it. Haymitch had stormed out of the party when it had happened, his daughter following him with a worried look in her eyes…she didn't look worried for her safety though, actually she had acted as if she was far more concerned for his safety, especially when he had turned a tray of food over as he left the room.<p>

Opening the door, I saw a figure walk past me and head toward the window where the lights from outside lit her profile. Calla was apparently just as tired of being cooped up in these apartments as I was. I watched her silently for a moment, seeing her sigh and lean into the window, looking outside for a moment before I decided to talk to her.

"How angry is your dad?"

She turned quickly, her eyes widening in surprise, but also a bit of fear at the sudden interruption, "Pretty pissed."

"He seemed like it earlier." I nodded and looked out the window as well, hearing the sounds of the after party the people of the Capitol were still having even after the Games had pretty much ended for the night.

Calla sat down, listening to the sounds as well, "He's sort of over the whole thing."

"I would be too if I'd been mentoring as long as he had." I agreed with her and the sat down, pulling my knees to my chest.

"What're you doing?" she looked over at me, a slight look of outrage on her face as she saw me move.

I returned her comment with a small chuckle, "Sitting here .What does it look like?"

"Maybe I came out here to sit alone."

I smiled at her, a sad smile as I thought about Snow's proposal and the woman from earlier in the night, "Maybe I did too."


	10. 10: Callalily - Age 16

"You know, sometimes I wonder what the point of all this is." I looked over at Finnick as he looked down at his hands.

He'd been depressed for the past couple of days, not that I blamed him; there had been an influx of men and women that were paying Snow for his…services, and the girl he told me he had been in love with was currently in the Games, fighting for her life. I felt bad for him, he was already stressed out as it was with his nightmares and Snow's clients, he didn't need all if the other junk that he had on his shoulders right now.

I sighed and bit my lip. Trying to stop myself from giggling at how stressful the situation was becoming. I didn't want to make him anymore uncomfortable than he already felt; he didn't need to think that I was laughing at his problems.

"Why're you biting your lip?" Finnick looked up from his hands, a smile on his face as he returned to his normal self for a moment.

"I have the tendency of laughing when I'm nervous or feeling stressed, and I didn't want to laugh." I looked down at the bracelet that Sterling had given me before dad and I had left to mentor. A simple little piece of rope that he'd had left after making traps in the woods. It wasn't really that special, it was already fraying and it had been an afterthought of Sterling's to give it to me.

"That's cute." Finnick spoke and I looked up to see he was smiling; I returned the gesture and then untied the rope from my wrist.

"Here," I handed the piece of rope to him, thankful that Sterling hadn't tied it into anything intricate, "take this."

He looked at me for a moment, an eyebrow quirked like he thought I was crazy, "What exactly is this?"

"Obviously, it's a piece of rope. You mess with your hands a lot when you're stressed, and you like making knots and stuff, maybe if you tied knots when you were stressed it would help."

Turning his attention back to the rope, he looked down at it, tying into some intricate knot without trouble, "It might help."

"It will." I smiled at him, biting my lip again as I moved to get more comfortable.

We were in our hallway, the one we'd sat in last year after we had first met. It wasn't the most private of places, but it was better than sitting in our respective apartments, especially for Finnick. Mags had been giving him sad looks the whole time they'd been mentoring and I could tell that it was making him feel worse than anything else.

He returned my smile though, his eyes lighting up in the way that they hadn't in a few days. I was glad; maybe everything would be okay after all.

* * *

><p>I watched my dad as he spoke to one of the few sponsors for Twelve's tributes before looking over at Finnick where he sat with Mags. The rope I'd given him last night was on his arm in a more intricate knot than Sterling could have hoped to make. His eyes were glued to the screen, eating up every shot of Annie Cresta they showed. I felt bad for him, I had never had to deal with someone that I was close to go through the Games and my dad wouldn't show me his, wouldn't tell me what it was like unless he was off the deep end drunk.<p>

Finnick had told me his experience though; he had said that he had never been so afraid in his life. He was only fourteen at the time of his Games; I could only imagine what it was like to go through such a traumatic experience at that age. And I definitely couldn't imagine having to watch someone I loved go through the same thing that I went through.

A commercial played for a moment and Finnick sighed before looking around the room and in my direction. I blushed slightly as our eyes met before I looked away, my leg bouncing.

"Callie?" I looked up to see the bronze haired seventeen year old standing beside me, using the nickname that he'd designated for me a few days ago.

"Yeah?"

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "It works."

"Told you so," I sent him a small smile and then looked at the rope on his arm, "the knot looks good, you should make jewelry sometime."

Finnick laughed slightly, "Right."

"You should, the ladies would love it."

"The ladies love everything I do."

And there he was, the real, flirtatious, Finnick was back for a moment. I smiled wider, "Yeah? I suppose they do. With all the rumors I've heard, they just buzz with excitement."

"Of course they do, I'm too amazing to resist."

I giggled, nervous now as he spoke and leaned down, "Don't get nervous on me now Callie."

Shivering slightly, I turned my head to look at him before he straightened and then looked back at the television as the commercial ended, "She's going to be okay, Finn."

"I know she will be." And with that he returned to his seat next to Mags.

* * *

><p>Finnick cheered as Annie was presented as the winner of the Games, his fist punching the empty air in front of him. As much as I hate watching the children of District Twelve dying, I couldn't deny that I was glad that the District Four girl had won. Finnick shouldn't have to lose anyone else in his life.<p>

I clapped with the other mentors, a bit happier than the rest of them that the winner was in fact this girl. But as I watched the screen, I saw her eyes; they were wide and seemed to be seeing something that definitely wasn't there. I stopped clapping, and saw from the corner of me eye as Finnick did the same, noticing what I had. I didn't know the girl, but I did know that this wasn't normal behavior. And she'd had to watch as her District Four counterpart was beheaded…anyone who saw something like that and didn't go a little crazy had something wrong with them.

The large screen went black and I watched as Finnick ran out of the room, his face an expression of worry for the winner of the 68th Hunger Games. I wanted to follow him, but I knew that it was better to leave him alone; he needed to do whatever it was that he was going to do. I would just cause problems for him.

My dad sighed and looked over at me, putting his hand on my shoulder, "Come on Calla; let's go back to the apartment."

I nodded and followed him out of the room, hearing the chattering from the other mentors as we left.


	11. 11: Finnick - Age 19

"_The Victor of the 69__th__ Annual Hunger Games is Callalily Abernathy." _I let out a deep breath that I didn't know I had been holding and then looked over at Haymitch, seeing him do the same.

Callie was alive, she was coming back…and she was going to be okay.

"Congratulations Haymitch." I pushed through the group of mentors that were hugging the man, all happy that his daughter had survived, "She's coming home."

He smiled and nodded to me, "Whatever you did, thank you."

I returned the gesture; I hadn't done that much really, just sent her a piece of bread when she looked ready to be done with the whole thing. She knew what it had meant though…she'd gotten out of the tree she'd been occupying and had won.

Looking back at the screen I saw Calla's face, searching for the look that Annie had had when she'd won just last year…but other than look extremely tired, her sanity seemed to be, somewhat, intact. Haymitch followed my gaze, probably searching for the same thing before the screen turned black.

"She's okay." I looked back at Calla's father, speaking the words before I pulled at the piece of rope she'd given me last year, taking it off of my wrist and trying it into a knot before undoing it just as quickly as I'd made it.

* * *

><p>"Calla!" I walked toward the girl, seeing her in the light blue dress that her stylist had placed her in. There were blue flowers painted on her face, and even though she had been made to look like some product of the Capitol, she looked beautiful…and sane.<p>

"Hey Finnick." She gave me a small, broken, smile and I pulled her to me, placing my face in her brown hair and breathing a sigh of relief. She was here, and though she wasn't the way she'd been when we'd met, she could get better. All that mattered was that Calla was alive.

"Are you okay?" I pulled away from her, searching her eyes and finding the answer in them, she wasn't okay…of course she wasn't, "That was a stupid question."

She laughed, that little giggle that told me she was nervous, "Yeah it was."

"Everything is going to be okay."

She nodded, not convincing me in the slightest that she even believed what I was saying, "I know."

I kissed her again, brushing my lips on hers like at the beginning of the Games and then pulled away from her, giving her another tight hug, "I'll be right by your dad."

"Okay." She game me another smile, much stronger than the other one, giving me the proof that I needed to know that she was okay. Calla wasn't going to let Snow win.

* * *

><p>"Can you tell me what compelled you to win the Games?" Caesar Flickerman's orange hair shone in the lights of the stage for a moment, but everyone was looking at Calla, looking at the girl who was sitting straight in her chair, acting just like her dad had during his interview after winning the second Quarter Quell. I hadn't realized how good of an actress she could be, and how charismatic. She'd won over everyone in this room as soon as she'd walked in and sat down.<p>

Calla looked away from the talk show host and found my eyes in the audience before they flickered to Haymitch beside me, "Well, the only real reason was because of my dad. I'm the only family he has left."

"I remember when your father was up here himself after winning the Second Quarter Quell, it seems fitting that you should follow in his footsteps." Caesar nodded at her answer, satisfied with it as if he had come up with the words himself.

"We both know I'm much more charming than he ever was."

Flickerman laughed again, "That's very true. You're much prettier too."

"Well thank you Caesar."

"Now, let's watch some of the recaps from your Games."

She gave the crowd a big smile for a moment before she turned her attention to the large screen as they showed the first day, replaying the massacre at the Cornucopia. Her counterpart had been killed by Seth, the male tribute of Four when Mitchell had gone to get a weapon, but then they showed Calla, standing on her platform, watching everything until she took a step forward and grabbed a bag, leaving the weapons for later as she left the Cornucopia behind, doing exactly as her father had told her to do.

"Can you tell me a little bit about the other tribute from Twelve?"

Calla took a moment to answer, trying to compose herself for the audience. I'd seen the look that had flashed through her eyes, but she was smart enough to just continue playing along. "Mitchell was my age. He worked in the minds in town, so I didn't really know him. But in school he was pretty popular, the girls loved him."

The crowd laughed and I could once again see the disgusted expression that flashed in her eyes, she couldn't hide her thoughts from me. Those gray eyes were like an open book for me to read. But she continued smiling, I could already imagine the people that Snow was lining up for her…and it sickened me to think that Snow was going to do the same to her as he'd done to me. But I knew better, things hadn't gone according to his plan, so this was the only way to make Haymitch and Calla pay.

They started showing more clips, showing Calla running away from the poisonous snake mutts that the Gamemakers had added and then showing as she killed the eighteen year old tribute from District Nine. By throwing her knife at his throat while he hung upside down in the trap she'd set up the day before. The next clip appeared, showing her in a tree, the day after her first kill in the arena. She had scared me when I saw the look in her eyes on the television screen, Calla had looked like she was ready to jump off the large branch and give up, but as the clip continued, a silver parachute landed on her lap, causing her to jump from surprise for a moment. She threw it open and stared at the contents before pulling out a slip of paper and smiling at it.

_"Win for me."_

Those were the last thing I had said to her before she'd gone into the arena…the last words that I thought I would ever get to say to her. So I'd sent them to her, knowing that it would give her the little push she needed to keep going.

And I'd been right, she did win for me. Calla wasn't leaving me just yet.

* * *

><p><em>"I'm worried about her Finnick, she's been having nightmares." <em>

I sighed, holding the receiver of the phone with my shoulder as Haymitch spoke to me. I was in District Four for another week before I had to go back to the Capitol to continue with a client. I'd known she would have nightmares, so had Haymitch, we'd all had them after our Games, I still had them…even if it had been years since. But Haymitch was worried about her and it made me worried too. Haymitch didn't worry over nothing, he wasn't capable of just worrying without something to cause it.

"I'll talk to her the next time I see her, Haymitch." It wouldn't do anything, talking to people never worked, but I knew that it would ease him a bit.

He sighed, _"Okay." _

I could hear in his voice that he knew from experience that it wouldn't work. But it did help him a bit to know that I was worried about her too. The last time I'd seen her she had had dark circles under her eyes and she looked sleep deprived, but she was more beautiful to me than all of the women of the Capitol and District Four combined.

"Callie has to deal with this stuff on her own though. She's like you, too stubborn for her own good." I spoke again, trying to lighten the mood, if I'd been talking to Calla, she'd have been giggling from the seriousness of the situation, I sort of missed the sound.

Haymitch chuckled, _"That she is." _


	12. 12: Callalily - Age 22

I sat on the bullet train in my room, thinking about the two District Twelve tributes this year. Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark were an interesting pair. We'd had our first volunteer thanks to Katniss…and I had to wonder if that could help us get sponsors, especially since she volunteered for her little sister, people in the Capitol loved that kind of thing, it could definitely help her.

Peeta, on the other hand, didn't seem like much. He was the baker's son, but I didn't know anything else other than that. As we'd spoken though, it seemed as if he was good at smooth talking, and that could also help him for the Games. Maybe he could talk his way into the Career group. But I didn't see much potential for Peeta fighting.

Gale had told me, however, that Katniss could use a bow. I'd never seen it myself, but it would definitely help the girl during the Games. Hunting was important for this; it was the same with people as it was with animals.

My dad was unimpressed with them, and had already vomited over the carpet; Peeta helped put him to bed, which was definitely a ploy to get on his good side. He had fallen off the stage earlier during the reaping today, his stress levels sky rocketing due to the Games. He'd started drinking a lot more after my Games…but I was angry that he was drinking more now; he needed to take care of these kids, not write them off as already lost causes.

I was also upset because Katniss was the female tribute this year. I didn't know her very well either, but I still spoke to Sterling's family and helped them out whenever possible…and Gale was absolutely smitten with her, even if the eighteen year old wouldn't admit it.

"That guy is to hard headed for his own good." I mumbled running a hand through my hair and giving a small chuckle.

I didn't know what to do for Peeta and Katniss, and I felt bad. If my dad had been sober and actually had faith in these kids, he'd already have a plan figured out for them. I figured that I would just have to figure it out on my own in the morning; I doubted my dad would even make it to breakfast.

* * *

><p>"Here's some advice: Stay alive."<p>

I walked in right as Peeta crushed my dad's glass of wine, earning the blonde kid a swift punch in the face that landed him on the ground. I crossed my arms, surprised as I watched Katniss stab a knife into the table, almost hitting my dad's hand as she stopped him from reaching for another drink. I quirked an eyebrow, slightly impressed with the two of them. Most tributes didn't argue with my dad's drinking habits, they'd all mostly written themselves off for dead, but I was glad Peeta and Katniss were fighting back, not writing themselves off.

District Twelve needed more fighters.

"That is mahogany!" Effie yelled at the District Twelve girl, angrily. I laughed and everyone else ignored her.

My dad nodded at the two of them, seemingly happy with their performance, "Alright, here's the deal," he paused for a moment, "I will help you guys…if you don't interfere with my drinking."

And that was how it began.

* * *

><p><em>"The winners of the 74<em>_th__ Hunger Games are Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen." _

I cheered my smile a little to plastered on. The stunt that Katniss had just pulled was an extremely dangerous one, she'd just defied Snow…and he wasn't going to take that lightly. I ran a hand through my hair, taking a deep breath before someone came up behind me and whispered in my ear.

"Whatever the hell stunt that was…" Finnick spoke, his voice clouded with worry, "Snow's not going to be happy."

I grimaced in response, "I know."

He turned me around, and now that I was facing him I saw the worry that had been in his voice reflected clearly in his eyes, "Be careful."

"I'm always careful," I smiled at the twenty three year old man, a real one this time, "whatever happens, happens Finn."

Finnick rolled his eyes at me, "I don't care about that. I just want _you _to be careful, I'm not losing you because some seventeen year old is being selfish and doesn't want to go back home to see that kid's family."

"She loves him…"

"Bullshit." His eyes were the most serious that I had seen them in a long time and it made me stop protesting. I knew what Finnick didn't want to say, he wouldn't say it unless he'd had a few drinks anyway. He didn't want to lose me like he'd lost Annie.

"I'll be careful."

His eyes softened slightly, "You better be."

We stared at each other for a bit, reading our thoughts through the other's eyes, before Finnick looked behind me at the screen again. I wanted to say something to him, to let him know that I would be okay, nothing was going to happen...but I knew he wouldn't believe me and I also didn't know if I believed it myself. This was Snow we were talking about; he didn't like looking like a fool…and with the stunt that Katniss had just pulled, he looked like the biggest fool of all in his eyes.

Finnick sighed and shook his head before looking back at me and grabbing my hand. He squeezed it and looked down at our intertwined hands, his thoughts elsewhere for a moment before he let my hand drop back to my side and walked away.

* * *

><p>"Finn?" I opened the door to the Capitol apartment, yawning and rubbing sleep from my eyes, "What's wrong?"<p>

The twenty three year old man looked at me, one hand stuffed in his jacket pocket and the other one raised to knock on the door again, "Hey Callie."

"What's wrong Finn?" I asked again. He was acting weird and I couldn't understand why. If anything it was Katniss that Snow would go after, she was the one that had defied him…but then my thoughts ran to Gale and how his older brother had paid for my mistake and I understood. Snow didn't hurt you directly; he hurt those that you cared about the most to send the message.

"You wanna come in?"

He nodded and followed me inside, closing the door behind him and stripping off his jacket, Finnick proceeded to follow me into the kitchen as I made coffee.

"So…um?" I bit my lip and giggled nervously, unsure of what to say.

Finnick was in one of his rare moods where he was silent, lost in his own world. I was pretty sure that he had just finished up with a client…he could get this way if it had been worse than his usual experiences.

He didn't respond though, instead, he closed the gap between us, his lips brushing mine as he pulled me into a hungry kiss. Backed up onto the counter, I returned the kiss, equally as hungry as his, I didn't fully understand why he was doing this, but I also didn't care. Ever since that first kiss before my Games, I craved his kisses and coveted each and every one that he gave me.

Lifting me up, Finnick sat me on the counter top, surprising me slightly as he situated himself between my legs, our lips only disconnecting when one of us needed air. He wove his fingers in my hair, tangling the curly mess even more until, finally, we pulled apart. His sea-green eyes still held a hungry look, but also held the fear and worry that always seemed to be in his eyes when he looked at me.

"You're so beautiful," Finnick whispered. My spine tingled and I pushed his bronze hair away from his forehead.

"Thank you." I smiled, blushing slightly. I wasn't used to that kind of praise coming from him. The only people that had told me I was beautiful were Snow's clients…and by then we were usually naked and under the covers of their bed.

I had to shake the thought from my head and realize that it was Finnick in front of me and not some man (or woman) that had paid someone else to be with me for the night. Finnick, who seemed to understand, gave me a small smile and gently pulled me off the counter.

"Come on, you look tired."

I had never, willingly, slept in the same bed with someone before, so, when I woke up to find someone's arms around my waist and their face in my hair, I thought that it was just another client. But, when I noticed that both of us were clothed, with the exception of the man behind me being bare-chested, I was confused.

"Callie?" Finnick mumbled in my ear, his voice clouded with grogginess.

I gave a small smile of relief and wiggled around in his arms to face him, "Morning."

He smiled and we continued laying like that in the bed, both comfortable in each other's presence. I was surprised that I hadn't woken us from a nightmare, considering my track record with sleeping. But I was glad that I hadn't.

"You didn't have any nightmares." Finnick was still mumbling, our lips touching and his eyes closed.

"You didn't either." I had to admit that last night had been the most sleep I'd gotten since my Games five years ago.

"Maybe we should do this more often." Finnick opened his eyes and searched mine, "What're you doing tonight?"

"I don't know, why?"

"Because," he smiled, "I'm taking you to dinner."


	13. 13: Callalily - Age 17

"I have a proposition for you." Snow leaned forward on the desk of the study that my dad and I never used. The smell of blood and roses overpowered me as he moved, and I leaned back, trying to put as much distance between the two of us as possible.

I already knew what he was going to say…Finnick had warned me about it after my interview with Caesar Flickerman. Snow had done the same to the District Four male as soon as he had turned sixteen, and I was seventeen, already a year past the age where he forced victors into being his prostitutes. I didn't like the idea…in fact it absolutely disgusted me, I hadn't even really thought about doing anything remotely sexual with someone and now Snow expected me to do it with complete strangers.

When I didn't speak, Snow smiled, "I want you to entertain clients for me. You made quite the impression on the people of the Capitol, they want to…meet you, and, you're going to oblige their wishes."

"Or what?" I hadn't meant for the words to come out, hadn't meant to speak my mind in front of the devil.

Instead of what I feared, it earned me a sadistic smile, "I think you know what happens if you say no. But I'll allow you to think about it."

He stood up, walking to the door of the study, "I'll do it."

"I thought you might."

* * *

><p>"Finnick?" I knocked on the door to the apartment, knowing that my green-eyed savior would be inside. We had met on the train here and he had given me directions to his apartment, which I was thankful for now. I didn't want to break down in the middle of a hallway.<p>

It was midnight, but I knew Finnick wouldn't be with a client tonight, he would have one tomorrow, and Snow wanted him to come in early for some reason that was unknown to the District Four male. I knocked again, worried that I actually was going to have to break down in the hallway when he opened the door. His sea-green eyes were clouded with sleep and his shirt was both inside out and on backward.

"Callie?" He looked at me and, reading my thoughts, grabbed my arm, "Come on."

He pulled me inside his apartment and slammed the door shut behind us, pulling me into a tight hug as I finally broke down, crying into his shoulder. We stood there, in front of the door for a moment before he pulled me toward the couch, sitting me down and then leaving the room to get the jacket he had been wearing on the train. Sitting down beside me, he wrapped the jacket around my shoulders; covering up the revealing dress that I had haphazardly threw on after the whole thing had happened.

"Talk to me." Finnick wrapped his arm around my shoulder and I recoiled from his touch suddenly, going to the edge of the couch we were sitting on, suddenly not wanting to physical contact.

I bit my lip, no nervous giggle threatening to come out this time.

"I can't do this."

* * *

><p>"When I was sixteen, there was this woman that kept asking for me." Finnick looked down at his hands, tying the rope that I had given him into another knot, "And once a week, I would go to her place…she would just sit there and talk to me, no strings attached. Her name was Sulvia and she used to tell me all sorts of secrets about things that most people definitely shouldn't know."<p>

I looked over at Finnick from the chair I was sitting on, my chin resting on my knees as I hugged my legs to my chest, watching the eighteen year old play with the rope, "Why'd she do it?"

"She told me that she didn't want me to think that everyone from the Capitol was horrible."

"Did it change your mind?" He looked up from the piece of rope, looking across the room at me.

Finnick had been giving me a lot of space lately, and for that I was glad, I didn't want anyone to touch me…and like always he knew exactly what I needed, "No, not really."

"I don't think it would change my mind either." I mumbled, running a hand through my hair and giving a grim smile.

He nodded in understanding, still tying knots, "I want to tell you it gets easier…but that just sounds wrong. It definitely doesn't get easier."

"Yeah?" I looked up at him again, seeing his eyes on me.

"Everything's going to be okay." The way he looked at me made me believe his words. The sea-green color seemed to darken with certainty, like he would stop all the clients from requesting me when I knew that it wouldn't happen.

We both knew that he couldn't do anything to stop what was happening, but I could see in his eyes that if he could, Finnick would have done everything in his power to make it stop. I smiled and looked back at my knees, revealing in silence for a moment before I looked up at him again.

"What's Four like?"

Finnick stayed silent, tying another knot, "Well, there are lots of beaches. You know sand, salt water, warm weather. It's like a constant vacation."

"That makes Twelve sound horrible."

He laughed, "Well, what's Twelve like?"

"Obviously, we're the poor district, but no one seems to dwell on that much. I'm closer to a lot of people in the Seam, it's the really low income part of town…Haymitch and my mom both grew up there. I don't know, everyone knows everyone…and everyone tries to watch after one another. Except when it comes to the Games of course."

"Of course." Finnick grimaced and tied another knot, looking back down at the rope.


	14. 14: Finnick - Age 20

I stepped off the train, pushing the crowd of people to get outside of the station and go to my normal apartment. Calla was waiting for me there, at least she said that she would be, our schedules had been altering more and more and now it was hard to spend any time with her while I was in the Capitol. I knew who was behind that though, knew that Snow wanted to keep her away from me. He wanted her to break, wanted to cause her even more pain…all because she was supposed to have died in her Games as another punishment to her dad.

Calla was having more trouble recently too. Her friend that she had been close to since they were little had finally found out why she wasn't around as much as she had been before and though he wasn't disgusted with her, the guy had supposedly been furious. He wanted her to tell Snow that she wouldn't do it anymore, and she'd been thinking the same thing since she had started, but I knew the consequences if she did tell Snow no. I'd learned that when I was fourteen and had vehemently refused his offer. You didn't say no to Snow without consequences and I didn't want Calla to have to go through that.

* * *

><p>"Hey Finn." Calla smiled at me as I pulled her inside of the apartment with me.<p>

Her gray eyes were dull today, they'd been losing that bright spark since her Games and I was worried that they would just die out eventually. I wasn't going to let the storm in her eyes die. I wasn't going to lose Calla to Snow and his clients.

"How've you been Callie?" I smiled at her and closed the door behind us, feeling a small case of déjà vu as I pulled her toward the couch with me. Only a year ago, I'd pulled her to the couch and she had flinched away from my touch after having to go through her first night of…entertainment. She'd been doing this thing for a year now, had been selling herself to protect her loved ones, but something inside of her was changing, she wasn't going to be able to do this much longer, she was losing the internal batter that she'd been having with herself since Snow's offer. Eventually she was going to give up and say no.

Seeing her now, I knew that I couldn't convince her otherwise, she was already making up her mind, and all it was going to take was one more thing for her to make the decision. One more thing and she would be pushed to far over the edge.

We sat down on the couch and Calla leaned into me, closing her eyes as I draped my arm around her shoulders, feeling the cold skin of her arms. She wasn't wearing her normal revealing outfits that she was forced into when she came here. In fact, she was wearing something that she would have worn before her Games. It was a modest knee length, long sleeved dress that puffed out at the bottom, the fabric wrinkling as she brought her legs on the couch and made herself comfortable. I smiled, looking down at her, glad that she was comfortable around me again. If there was one thing that had worried me last year, it was the fact that she might not want to be close to me like she had been before. But I had known the feeling too. After my first time, I wouldn't even go near Mags, the woman who'd raised me after I was fourteen.

"Dad told me to tell you he says hello." She mumbled, looking at the tv across from us as they played some badly acted soap opera. I had taken to playing something whenever she was here; learning that after her Games she got jumpy if there was too much silence. It reminded her of the arena, when there was nothing to do but protect herself from the last Career and wait until the District One female fell asleep.

"Tell him I said hey when you go home." We smiled at each other and then fell silent again. Our eyes searching each other's for something.

According to the other mentors, we did this a lot, just looked into each other's eyes for drawn out periods of time. I hadn't noticed it until someone had mentioned it, but that hadn't changed the fact that we still did it. It was like we could read each other's minds during these times. I knew what she was thinking and likewise, she knew what I was thinking. All it took was staring into each other's eyes for a few moments.

"You know, I was fourteen when Snow offered his job to me the first time." The words came out quicker than I meant them to. I hadn't meant to actually tell her this because I knew it wouldn't change her mind, and it scared me. The intense guilt that I felt whenever I thought about it was almost suffocating, Mags was the only person who knew about it, but now that the words had come out, I was kind of glad. It took some of the crushing weight off of my chest.

Calla's brow wrinkled together, her eyes holding nothing as she looked at me. She knew that I just wanted her to listen to me, "What happened?"

"Well, I was at the beach one day, swimming and goofing around. I had yelled at my little sister earlier that morning because she was complaining about me leaving her at the house with nothing to do…and I was just about to go back to the house and apologize to her when, all of a sudden, there was this loud boom and a bunch of smoke started rising from Victor's Village. So, I ran there from the beach and when I got there, there was a huge crowd of people standing around my house, looking at it with sad expressions and not doing anything." I stopped, taking a deep breath as the memory took over everything else for a moment. Calla squeezed my hand, bringing me back to her as I continued, "I went to run into the house to see if they were in there, and if they were, I was going to bring them back. I figured I won the Hunger Games; I could definitely go inside of a burning building and save both my parents and my little sister. But Mags grabbed me before I could do it…she said it was a lost cause, I was the only one who had left my house that day."

I stopped talking, looking at the television but not really seeing what was happening on it. All I could see was the fire that had come out of my sister's second story window hear the screech as glass broke from another one of the windows and forced the shards out into the street. I could feel as Mags grabbed my arms, much stronger before her stroke, forcing me away from the inferno that had taken the house that my family had owned for only a month. I could feel the looks of everyone in Four watching me as I fell to me knees and screamed at the sight before me. Could feel the tears on my face before I could wipe them away.

"Finn." Calla touched my face, her voice low and careful as she called my attention away from the memory.

I shook my head and looked down at her, reading the concern in her eyes before I leaned down and caught her lips with mine, breathing in her scent. She smelled like a forest mixed with the slight sent of blackberries and though my favorite smell would always be the sea…this was definitely a close second and it brought me back to reality, driving the memory I had been reliving away.

"Sorry," resting my forehead against hers, I continued to breath in her sent, trying to memorize it so that I could have it later tonight when I would need her the most but couldn't have her.

* * *

><p>"I'll see you later, Finn." Calla smiled at me as she walked to the door and turned around to look at me, her gray eyes showing some of that old spark that used to be in them, "I don't have anything until tomorrow night, maybe we could meet back here?"<p>

I nodded at her, "Yeah, we'll meet back here."

Before she could turn around again, I pulled her to me, kissing her quickly before letting her leave. She would be late otherwise, and I didn't want to think of what Snow would if that happened.

"Be safe, Callie."

She laughed, understanding the hidden meaning behind the words, "You too, Finn."

I walked into the party, immediately catching the eye of the woman who was my client for the night. This one actually looked normal, with her long brown, slightly curly, hair and tan skin…I actually liked her appearance until I noticed that she was actually trying to copy Calla. As I got closer, I noticed that she was wearing contacts that were about three shades darker than the actual color of Calla's eyes and she was about a foot taller than the eighteen year old. I found it a little sickening that she was trying to look like her though. If I wanted to sleep with someone who looked like Calla, I would go ahead and sleep with Calla.

"Hello, Finnick." The woman walked up to me, her smile wide and her Capitol accent making my name sound strange. As much as this chick seemed to want to look like the District Twelve woman I had become so close to, she would never sound like her.

_This is probably all some ploy from Snow. _I thought as I moved toward her, the act that I always put on for my clients and the Capitol coming into play. I wasn't going to allow myself to be the person that I showed Calla around this woman. She didn't even walk like Calla; in fact, she looked like she was having trouble walking period in the heels that she was wearing.

"Hi."

Anti-Calla stuck her hand out, "I'm Selena Snow."

"What."

I spoke without thinking, my Capitol façade disappearing for a moment out of shock. Snow didn't have any family from what I'd heard, and I had heard a lot of secrets about President Snow.

"I'm President Snow's granddaughter." Selena nodded and I really looked at her now, trying to see past the fake Calla impersonation to see if there were any similarities between her and the man that I hated so much, "Anyway, this is my eighteenth birthday party and my grandfather thought that you would be a good gift."

She smiled at me, a large smile, seeing no problem with the words that she had just spoken. I held back the words I wanted to say, slipping back into what the people of the Capitol expected of me, "Well, I guess tonight is your lucky night."

I sat up in bed, being careful not to wake up Selena from beside me as I grabbed my discarded clothes from the floor and quickly threw my pants on before walking out of the hotel room that we had went to earlier that night. It was four in the morning, but I didn't want to be here when Selena woke up, everything about her disgusted me.

Walking out of the hotel room, I threw my shirt on and left the building, moving passed the people who were still, miraculously, awake as I headed toward my apartment. Calla would be there soon, and I wanted to tell her about what had just happened, wanted to tell her about Snow's granddaughter.

I sighed, looking at the clock by the television. It was eight o'clock in the morning and Calla still wasn't here yet. I'd been pacing for the past three hours; the rope that I tied into knots was sitting on the table beside the couch. It hadn't helped this time, instead of taking my mind off of Calla it just made me think of her even more.

A sudden knock made me sprint to the door, sending it flying open as I took in the woman standing in front of me. Calla was wearing only a man's oversized button up shirt that barely covered anything. But my attention was focused solely on her face.

Someone had hit her, a couple of times it seemed. Her right eye and cheek were swollen and beginning to turn black, her lip was swollen and bleeding slightly, and there were scratches going down her neck that were also bleeding. I saw red for a moment, anger getting the best of me before I reminded myself that Calla was standing in front of me and I pulled her inside.

"What the _hell_ happened?" I sat her down on the couch, forcing myself to do it calmly before I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a wash cloth, wetting it with cold water before walking back to the living room. Leaning down in front of her, I touched the cloth to her cheek, wincing a bit as she recoiled away from it, "Sorry."

She closed her eyes, letting me touch the cloth to her cheek again, "I'm not exactly sure what happened. The guy got drunk and pissed off."

I was silent as Calla told me what happened. She'd gone home with her client like normal, and he'd gotten drunk, something that clients normally did to help them deal with the 'guilt' of sleeping with people who were much younger than they were. But, unlike most of the clients, instead of getting sappy and sentimental, this one had just gotten angry and claimed that she hadn't done what he wanted her to.

This had never happened before, at least from what I'd seen, no one had ever had to deal with physical abuse, and I was not happy about this.

"Do you think I could maybe get off at Four?' I'll tell my dad that the train got held up or something."

I sighed, understanding why she wouldn't want her dad to see this. Haymitch Abernathy was protective of his only daughter, I'd seen his protectiveness first hand when she was sixteen and some Capitol man started flirting with her at one of the Games' parties. Seeing this would set him off worse than anything like that, worse than the times when his tributes died in the Games…there would be hell to pay if Haymitch saw Calla right now.

"Yeah," I stood up, going back to the kitchen to drop off the washcloth, "Come on, I have some clothes that you can wear."

I grabbed her hand again, pulling her gently from the couch and walked into the bedroom with her, going to a drawer and letting go of her hand as I pulled out some of the clothes I had left here over the years.

I handed her a shirt and a pair of shorts.

"Thanks, Finn." Calla smiled slightly at me, wincing a little from her split lip and bruised cheek; I returned the smile reluctantly and left the bedroom, giving her some privacy as she changed.

"So, you will not believe what happened to me last night." I looked down at Calla as she curled into my side, her eyes drooping a little as she tried not to go to sleep.

"What, your client didn't show up?"

I laughed a bit, "No, my client was some girl names Selena Snow."

"What?" Calla pulled away from me, suddenly awake, as she looked into my face with surprise, "I didn't know that Snow had any family."

I shrugged, "I didn't either, but she said that she was his granddaughter…"

Trailing off, I looked at her, remembering Selena's horrible shot at trying to look like Calla. I preferred the shade of gray that Calla's eyes were, they were lighter than the contacts Selena had been wearing; Calla's eyes looked like the clouds that would appear above the sea when a storm was about to begin. There was also the accent, whereas Selena's was the typical Capitol accent, Calla's was hard to describe, there was a twang to it, one that you couldn't find anywhere but in Districts Eleven and Twelve.

"What're you thinking about?" Calla settled back into my side, nudging my chest with her head a bit as she got comfortable.

I shrugged, "Nothing really, I'm still trying to process the fact that someone reproduced with Snow."

She laughed, "Yeah, I never thought a person like him would have anyone close to him…you'd think that he would have killed them off already."

We fell silent then, leaning on each other as we both engulfed ourselves in our own thoughts.


	15. 15: Finnick - Age 25

I'd already heard the news, so it wasn't surprising when she walked through the door to the war room with Katniss. I was glad that she was going to be with me, I could protect her now, the way I should have before. She walked to my side, her short hair hanging in her face for a moment before she pushed it out of the way with one hand, her other one grabbing mine and giving it a small squeeze.

I returned the gesture and watched Plutarch as he addressed everyone in the group, explaining the plan. The hologram showed up on the table, giving a clear view of the Capitol up to Snow's building. As I looked though, I was seeing similarities to something that I'd been through twice in my life.

Katniss, Calla, and I all stepped forward looking at the hologram.

"It's an arena." Calla spoke as Katniss reached out to touch the hologram before the three of us were ordered back in line.

I grabbed Calla's hand again and brought her back with me, seeing that spark in her eye that told me she didn't enjoy being told what to do, especially by Plutarch. But the spark left her eye as I pulled her back, calming her down a bit. Even though she had change a lot since what Snow had done to her, she could still sometimes get that spark of stubbornness that she used to have before.

I would have given anything if we could have just gone back to the way things were before.

"This is ridiculous." Calla spoke, shaking her head and looking over at Peeta from the corner of her eye as the boy sat there in his handcuffs, clearly as unhappy as the rest of the group that he was there.

I sighed, "It is."

We'd been sitting outside of the camp where our team was located, the other teams situated where they could fight easily when we were given the 'honor' of sitting back and watching the rest of them do a job that most us could probably do better than the front line. But, Coin and Plutarch wanted us as the attractive people of the rebellion; I was starting to feel as if this whole thing was futile. Either way the Victors of the Games were going to be used for something.

I'd been the attractive face for the Capitol for years and so had Calla. We'd been discussing it in our tent at night, whispering quietly to each other. Neither of us wanted to be the pretty faces for the rebellion; we were done being seen as objects that could be used to push one thing or another. We had belonged to everyone else for too long…it was time for us to belong to ourselves for a while.

Katniss and Gale sat with us, listening to Calla and I complain about the slowness of everything that was going on. They both agreed with us, had been agreeing with us for a week. But no one else did and when Peeta had joined our group it made everyone's moods worsen, they didn't want to hear us complaining about the fact that we didn't actually get to do anything useful in this rebellion.

Calla leaned into me, her hand in mine as we sat there, all watching Peeta from the corners of our eyes. I didn't have a problem with him; I wanted to help him because I knew that Katniss loved him. She just didn't have faith in him anymore, and Calla…well, she still had trouble being near him, at least when he had the handcuffs on; and that was only because he would push his wrists into the cuffs, sometimes making them bleed. She'd told me some of what had happened to them while Peeta, Johanna, and Annie had been in the Capitol's clutches, and I knew that Peeta's wrists looking the way they did bothered Calla.

The camp was silent as we listened to the other camps of rebels around ours, they were rowdier than our group, moving around more and making far too much noise most of the time. If we had been across enemy lines, we'd have all been dead by now. These people didn't seem to know how to be quiet.

I leaned my head on Calla's and closed my eyes, breathing in deeply before I opened my eyes again and looked into the fire, my mind going elsewhere to when my house had burned down when I was fourteen, trapping my family inside. Calla squeezed my hand and I looked at her, she understood, maybe not exactly…but she had always been able to tell what I was thinking.

"I love you." Whispering in her ear, she moved, her gray eyes catching mine as we looked at each other, ignoring everyone else.

Calla blushed, one of her nervous giggles escaping from her, "I love you too."

I pushed Calla inside the house after Katniss, getting her away from the tsunami of black, tar-like, material coming toward the group. Getting the rest of the group inside before I came in myself and closed the door, helping Gale cover the cracks that were open toward the street that we had occupied only moments before…before all hell had broken loose.

I looked around and grabbed Messalla, carrying her inside with me as Leeg 1 and Cressida followed me. We were all coughing, something in the tar most likely.

"Gale!" Katniss shrieked as he ran in behind us, slamming the door.

"Fumes!" Gale managed to cough out before going to the sink. I set Messalla down and continued covering the cracks.

When I turned back to see how everyone else was, I spotted Calla patting Gale on the back as he retched in the sink and Katniss leaning down to Boggs as he passed her something and, eventually died.

Katniss called for Boggs, even though it was clear he was dead, and somewhere, I suspected the closet near the stairs, Peeta was slowly losing energy as he kicked the door, trying to get out. Everything was falling apart and as Calla turned around to console Katniss, I walked toward them.

"He's gone?" I looked down at Boggs, seeing the blow that had taken off his legs. When Katniss nodded I sighed my mentality going straight back to the one I always seemed to have when I was pushed into the arena, "When need to get out of here. Now. We just set off a street full of pods. You can bet they've got us on surveillance tapes."

Castor walked over to us then, "Count on it. All the streets are covered by surveillance camera. I bet they set off the black wave manually when they saw us taping to propo."

Calla looked up at Caster, her mouth set into an unusual grim line as Jackson walked over to the small group that was beginning to gather, "Our radio communicators went dead almost immediately. Probably an electromagnetic pulse device. But I'll get us back to camp. Give me the Holo."

"No. Boggs gave it to me." Katniss clutched the Holo to her chest as Jackson reached for it.

"Don't be ridiculous."

"It's true. He transferred the prime security clearance to her while he was dying. I saw it." Holmes defended Katniss and turned to Jackson with a defiant look.

"Why would he do that?"

Everyone was silent for a moment, unsure about the answer. I looked at Katniss hoping she would be forthcoming with one, but she seemed about as confused as the rest of us.

"Because I'm on a special mission for President Coin. I think Boggs was the only one who knew about it."

"To do what?" Jackson's tone was defiant. Of course she wouldn't believe that story. I knew how bad Katniss Everdeen was a lying and this was just as bad as the last few times. She would never be known as a good liar.

"To assassinate President Snow before the loss of life from this war makes our population unstable." Okay…maybe she was getting better at it.

We left the house we had been holed up in after having a slight standoff between Jackson and Katniss. Thank the Capitol for Cressida.

I walked beside Calla, both of us crouched low and looking around, spotting Mitchell's hand in the barbed wire. Calla stared up at it for a moment before she turned her attention back to Katniss.

"If anyone needs to go back, for whatever reason, now is the time. No questions asked, no hard feelings."

No one moved. Of course they didn't, everyone wanted to either see where this was going, or wanted to kill Snow…our only shot was to go with Katniss; so, when she started leading through the tar, everyone followed.

The trek was a long one. The tar made it hard to walk in and I found my mind wandering to the sand in District Four, remembering how easy it was to walk in. The wave wiped out the pods, which, for us was a good thing; we didn't need another surprise pod coming at us right now…we were all too tired to deal with it. After the fifth block, Gale took his mask off and said that it was safe, so we all followed suit.

It was easier without the mask, I could see better without it, but I was still worried about the fumes that had made Gale so sick earlier.

We walked into another apartment, using the flashlights on our guns until we found the lights and turned them on. We all slumped onto the couches and chairs, Calla leaned on me, just like we were back in the Capitol after the two of slipped away from our clients in the morning. Everyone looked exhausted, Peeta was asleep on the blue sofa, and Jackson was pointing her gun at him like he was awake and threatening to kill someone.

As we sat, trying to catch our breath, a sudden chain of explosions rang off in the distance, reminding me of the bombs Snow had dropped on some of the Districts. Calla shot up from my side, her eyes wide as they went off.

"It wasn't close. A good four or five blocks away." Jackson explained. Calla fell back to my side, biting her lip. I wanted to hear one of her nervous giggles, wanted to go back to the conversations we would have when I kidnapped her to Four. I wanted her to be back at Thirteen with Haymitch where I knew that she would be safe.

"Where we left Boggs." Leeg 1 spoke.

After her words, the television turned on and a high-pitched sound emitted from it, causing Calla, Katniss, Gale, Jackson, and me to all jump on our feet in surprise.

"It's all right! It's just an emergency broadcast. Every Capitol television is automatically activated for it."

I sighed and fell back onto the couch, staring at the television as I wrapped my arms around Calla's waist as they showed our group. Showing the bomb that started the chain reaction and then finishing up by showing the black wave that blotted out the cameras and then as they identified the more famous members of our group.

"There's no aerial footage. Boggs must have been right about their hovercraft capacity." Castor spoke up as a reporter showed up on the screen, pronouncing our group dead.

"Finally a bit of luck."

I tuned everyone out for a moment, wondering what Haymitch was thinking, Coin probably had this playing in Thirteen, there was no doubt about that, and now he had to live with the forged knowledge that he lost his daughter…the only connection he had left to the woman Snow killed. Everyone in Thirteen was probably devastated the most by Katniss' supposed death…she was the Mockingjay.

"My dad is probably freaking out." Calla shook her head, closing her eyes.

The television began showing Katniss and all of her crimes against Panem. Everyone was quiet until Gale spoke.

"So, now that we're dead, what's our next move?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Peeta sat up with difficulty due to the cuffs holding his arms, "Our next move…is to kill me."

After arguing with Peeta, everyone set out to find food for our group, finding it everywhere. The hoarding was disgusting and I could see Calla from the corner of my eye glaring at the extra cans.

When we were sure that we found everything, we sat down, the hoard of food in the middle of us as we began passing around a box of cookies. I handed to box to Calla, watching her for a moment as she pulled a couple of cookies out and handed the box to Gale before she arranged them on her knee. I smiled and looked away from her, at the television as it started beeping again. Pictures of the known people from our group flashed on the television, before it went to a live broadcast of Snow addressing the Peacekeepers.

I didn't even bother to pay attention until the very end.

_"Tomorrow morning, when we pull Katniss Everdeen's body from the ashes, we will see exactly who the Mockingjay is. A dead girl who could save no one, not even herself."_

"Except that you won't find her." I said, glaring at the screen. We wouldn't get much time to rest; we had less than a day…in fact we had less than six hours to get far enough away from the Peacekeepers that were going to be looking for our dead bodies.

"We can start by getting a head start on them at least. Any ideas?"

"Why don't we start by ruling out possibilities?" I said, "The street is not a possibility."

Leeg 1 popped up, "The roofs are just as bad as the street."

"We still might have a chance to withdraw, go back the way we came. But that would mean a failed mission."

Katniss sighed, "It was never intended for all of us to go forward. You just had the misfortune to be with me."

"Well, that's a moot point. We're with you now." Jackson said, "So, we can't stay put. We can't move up. We can't move laterally. I think that just leaves one option."

"Underground." I looked over at Calla as she spoke for the first time since the original broadcast that pronounced we were dead. She picked up a cookie from the neat circle she had placed on her knee and took a quick bite.

Everyone nodded, that was our only hope, the only way to get to the Capitol without getting caught.

"Okay, then. Let's make it look like we've never been here."

We all cleaned up, getting rid of our trash and packing up the food we found. Calla handed one of her cookies to Gale, which he accepted with a smile and I walked over to them, feeling jealous. I knew the history that she'd had with his brother, it was, according to her platonic, but I'd never met him. I also knew that she felt guilty about the mining accident, knowing that she was the reason Snow had blown it up. I knew that I shouldn't waste my time thinking that this meant anything, we were about to go into a battlefield so we could kill Snow, but Callie was mine…she'd been mind since she had been seventeen and I kissed her the first time.

"Ready to go?" I asked her, giving her a small smile and enjoying the one she sent me in return.

"Yeah…" she trailed off and handed me her last cookie, "they're a bit too sweet for my liking, but you like your sugar cubes."

I laughed and stuffed it in my mouth, savoring the taste of sweets that I had been missing from living in Thirteen, "Thanks Callie."

With everyone done putting everything back into place, I grabbed Calla by the waist away from Gale, and toward the backdoor where some of the group had started to gather. But Peeta was sitting on the couch, refusing to move and being stubborn. Calla rolled her eyes at him.

"I'm not going. I'll either disclose your position or hurt someone else."

"Snow's people will find you." I try.

Peeta shook his head, "Then leave me a pill. I'll only take it if I have to."

"We're not leaving you here." Calla's voice was just as stubborn as Peeta's; it must have been a Twelve thing because Katniss was acting the same way. It was the same stubbornness that I had only thought Haymitch and Calla possessed.

"That's not an option. Come along." Jackson wasn't helping as she spoke, trying to drag him up.

"Or what? You'll shoot me?"

Homes shook his head, "We'll knock you out and drag you with us. Which will both slow us down and endanger us."

"Stop being noble! I don't care if I die!" Peeta did understand that he would endanger us if we had to carry him knocked out. But he also saw that we'd do it…his voice was desperate as he turned to look at Katniss, "Katniss, please. Don't you see, I want to be out of this?"

Calla sighed, biting her lip, "We're wasting time. Are you coming voluntarily or do we knock you out?"

It took a moment, but finally, Peeta rose from the couch, clearly not wanting to go.

"Should we free his hands?"

"No!" Peeta pulled his arms closer to him as Leeg 1 walked toward him.

Katniss shook her head, "No, but I want the key."

Jackson handed it to her and then we left through the utility closet, Messalla making some comment about how it was such an inconvenience to having a utility closet instead of a downstairs bathroom. I looked at him, not quite sure what I was hearing what I was…I had grown up in a richer district but I knew what Calla had told me about Twelve and these people were spoiled, complaining about the problems about something that had just helped us further our little mission.


	16. 16: Haymitch - Age 35

**A/N **

**In case anyone was wondering why this isn't in Finnick's or Calla's point of view...**

**I figured that it would be nice to take a break from those to and take a little look inside Haymitch's head when Calla went to the Games. This one was a little hard to write so if Haymitch is out of character (and I am quite sure that he is) I apologize. **

**And, please, if you have any comments, good or bad, please leave a review. **

**Anyway, I hope you guys like it. **

* * *

><p>I sat on the stage, watching Effie Trinket walk onto the stage, smiling happily. I took another swig of my drink. This was Calla's year, I'd known that it was coming, she couldn't stay out of the arena, Snow wouldn't allow that. But he wouldn't wait until she was eighteen either, that would give her to much of an upper hand, not that it would be much of one with the Careers that volunteered every year.<p>

Calla stood in the group with the other seventeen year old girls, her attention somewhere other than the stage as Effie began her speech and the video about the Treaty of Treason began. I'd seen this same video for so long that I just couldn't understand why they didn't change it up every few years or so. If the people of the Capitol had had to watch this every year there would have been uproar. The people of Twelve were silent through the film and no one bothered to clap when it had finished besides Effie as she smiling hugely for the cameras around her.

"Now, let us begin, shall we?" She stopped clapping, "As always, ladies first."

I held my breath without thinking hoping that it was anyone, anyone else other than Calla. It wouldn't work, I knew better than to think that hoping would make anything change, but I couldn't do anything else.

"Callalily Abernathy." I felt the breath leave me, like a deflating balloon as Calla walked toward the stage, her eyes on me as her face became indifferent, her head held high.

I couldn't help but think what the Capitol would be thinking when they saw the recaps they would be enamored with how she was acting. She was a little actress that was for sure.

"Come up here, darling." Effie grabbed her hand and led her up the steps back to the microphone, "Would you happen to be Haymitch Abernathy's daughter?"

Calla looked at her for a moment, "Yes."

Effie looked affronted for a moment, "Well, may the odds be ever in your favor."

"Thanks."

She was pushed back slightly so that Effie could speak once more into the microphone, "And now for the boys."

Walking to the other bowl she pulled out an envelope and opened it, "Mitchell Pine."

Calla, for some reason, looked relieved at the name of the boy walking to the stage. He was bigger than she was, of course, but I couldn't quite understand what she was so relieved about.

* * *

><p>"Listen when you get into that arena, run away from the Cornucopia, don't even bother with it. Run away and look for water."<p>

I looked at Mitchell, seeing in his eyes that he wasn't listening to me. Calla, however, I could tell was listening intently, she knew I was right, had seen more than enough Games to know that I was right. Few people made it out of the Cornucopia when they went to get weapons. I was worried about her, but I knew that she could at least last for the first couple of days, but after that, when there were fewer kids in the arena to go after…I couldn't help but think that she would be the target.

However, she was probably going to be a target from the beginning…children of Victors always were. I could remember the year after Calla's mother had died, one of District Six's kids went in, they'd died on the second day and the person had been pretty sadistic about it, killing them slowly. If something like that happened to Calla…

I didn't know what I was going to do if I lost her.

* * *

><p>I looked over at Chaff as he arrived in the remake room. He looked the same as always and we hugged for a moment.<p>

"Sorry about Calla, but she'll be okay. She's watched enough Games to know what to do and what not to do." His words sounded hollow to me, and Chaff seemed to understand that as well.

We fell silent and everyone took their places. I couldn't see Calla for a moment, but when I did, I felt the blood fall from my face.

"What the hell is that?" I looked at the black paint, seeing that it was only thing that she was wearing before I turned away, going in the direction of Twelve's remake rooms, where, hopefully, the costume designer was. My seventeen year old daughter was not going to go out in front of the Capitol naked. I didn't want her going out in front of the Capitol period.

"Haymitch, think about this." Chaff followed close behind me, "You're just going to get her into trouble. You don't want to piss anyone off just yet."

I sighed, knowing that he was right, "I need a drink."

"Just one." I rolled my eyes and left the room, looking forward to getting a drink…one that was probably going to be my last until Calla either died or won the Games.

* * *

><p>"Here." I threw a blanket around Calla's shoulders, watching as she clutched to it tightly and used the fabric to rub some of the black stuff from her face.<p>

"Thanks dad." She smiled at me and I looked over at Mitchell, throwing the second blanket at him.

We stood there, waiting for a few more tributes and mentors to go to their rooms so that we could get to the elevator when I caught sight of Finnick heading in our direction. He looked about as happy about Calla's non-existent outfit as I did, and as he reached us I nodded to him.

"I really don't think you outfit showed enough." The sarcasm in his voice was evident and my earlier thought was confirmed.

"Watch it Odair."

Finnick grinned, "I'm just saying they could have shown a lot more skin. In fact, they really should have. I'm sure all of Panem would have eaten that up." Calla rolled her eyes at him, her face growing red, "How're you holding up Callie?"

"I suppose I've been better." Calla shrugged and Finnick looked around, seeing the room that was, now, almost empty.

I took the hint, the two had been friends for almost three years now, I wasn't stupid, so I got Mitchell's attention and walked to the elevator, watching as Finnick grabbed her arm as I pressed the Twelve and went up to our floor.

"So?" I looked up from the couch as Calla came in through the elevator, a small smile on her face as she walked toward her room.

She looked at me, stopping in the hallway, feigning innocence, "So what?"

Clutching the blanket tighter around her, she walked into her room. I shook my head, looking back at the television as I drank my third cup of coffee. She walked out a minute later, fully clothed and her normal color, the smile still on her face as she plopped on the couch.

"Where'd Mitchell go?"

I shrugged, "His room. What'd Finnick have to say?"

"Nothing."

I looked over at her, an eyebrow raised. I knew my kid better than that, "Right."

Calla sighed, "He just told me to win for him."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

I let it drop, knowing that I wasn't going to get a full answer from her. It was times like that when I wished her mother were here. Calla would have spoken to her…hell, Elizabeth would have known exactly how to ask her what had happened, she also would have been a better parent…Elizabeth never had a drinking problem.

"Do you have a plan for training yet?" I looked over at Calla, pushing my thoughts back to the task at hand and changing the subject for what I knew was a lost cause of learning the actual answer.

She only shrugged for a moment, "I was going to spend tomorrow checking out the competition, see what everyone's strengths and weaknesses are…and then figure out where to go from there."

"Sounds good."

* * *

><p>I walked into the large room, looking around as some of the richer Capitol citizens went immediately to the Career mentors to give them money. Had Calla not been in the Games this year, I probably wouldn't have even bothered…I didn't usually come to these things easily.<p>

"Hey Haymitch."

I looked over, "Finnick."

"So, I have this…friend, and she wants to help sponsor Calla."

"What?" I didn't want to think what Finnick had had to do to get her to sponsor someone from District Twelve, but whatever he'd done, I was thankful. Snow pushed the better looking Victors toward the rich ones, so Finnick had probably gotten a good amount of money from her.

"Callie has at least one sponsor." He paused for a moment, "Listen, her name is August Midler. She's the wife of one of Snow's advisors."

"Thanks." I was speechless; Finnick definitely had done something big to convince this woman to sponsor Calla.

He smiled, "I'm just looking out for Calla."

"Well, thank you." I nodded to him and Finnick handed me a piece of paper.

"She said she'd contact you, I'm going to hold her to it, so don't worry about that. But, here's her information just in case."

He walked away then, going back to Mags and I looked at the paper, looking at the amount of money that was written under her information with surprise before seeing the back with another amount on it. I know exactly who that money belonged to…and it definitely wasn't August Midler. Finnick wasn't technically allowed to do that, the mentors were not allowed to sponsor the tributes, if Snow ever found out about this he would have some hell to pay.


	17. 17: Finnick - Age 25

_I was used to having nightmares, used to the ones that were induced by both the Games and now the rebellion. But the one that haunting me now have never happened fully, sure some of it had happened but that didn't the parts that hadn't happened didn't chill me to the core. Through the whole thing, somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that the person was sleeping in my arms, knew that she was safe. But apparently, my head decided to torture me that night. _

_ I could see as the lizard mutt crushed down on her, biting her arm to make her drop the knife in her hand. I wouldn't make it to her in time, there were three other mutts blocking my way to help her, but I tried anyway. I was anything if not persistent. It was like I was mentoring for the 69__th__ Games again, watching helplessly as she fought the girl from District One, there was no way she could win…no way that she would be able to do it alone. _

_ As I watched this I saw the mutt bite into her neck, puncturing her jugular. I closed my eyes, trying to force the color of her blood splattering the ground from my mind. _

_ "Finn!"_

"Finnick come on, wake up."

I sat up, looking into her face and pulling her into my chest.

"Finn?"

"I'm okay."

Calla scoffed and pushed against my chest, her gray eyes meeting mine, "Right."

"I am." I smiled at her, glad that she was still there before I saw the mutt once more biting her and spraying her blood everywhere, then I blinked and it was gone again.

Noticing something was wrong, she returned the gesture tentatively, searching my eyes for a moment to the answer to whatever was bugging me before she gave me her signature giggle and got out of the bed, shaking out her still short hair.

* * *

><p>"What's this?" Katniss entered the room and I looked up from Calla's hand as rubbed circles into my knee. I still hadn't been able to tell her about the dream I'd had that night but she hasn't pushed the issue, instead, like always, she stayed silent when I needed it, sitting beside me and giving me her small reassurances that she's still there.<p>

Haymitch shrugged at Katniss' question, "We're not sure. It appears to be a gathering of the remaining Victors."

And that was true, there weren't many of us left because of the confusion of the war, but the remaining ones are there, even Annie, who was sitting in her chair, looking ahead of her, and probably seeing something that wasn't even there. Everyone was giving her a wide berth of space, she'd slowly gotten better over the years, sometimes she would have moments of extreme clarity, but there still few and far between. I felt bad looking at her, knowing that I might have helped her if I had just stayed, but beside me was a mostly sane woman staring at me like she knew just what I was thinking and she gripped my hand a little tighter, making me realize that I probably made the right decision for my sanity.

"We're all that's left?"

Beetee nodded, "The price of celebrity. We were targeted from both sides. The Capitol killed the Victors they suspected of being rebels. The rebels killed those thought to be allied with the Capitol."

Calla bit her lip, giving a jerky shake of her head that only Haymitch and I seemed to notice. I squeezed her hand knowing, just as she had known for me, what she was thinking. Victors never really won, and this was just another showing of that fact.

"So what's she doing here?" Johanna growled, looking in the direction of Enobaria.

I had the same question, she'd went into the Quell to kill…her partner killed Chaff and had been intent to kill Calla and Peeta, if anyone didn't deserve to be here it was that bitch.

"_She _is protected under what we call the Mockingjay Deal." Coin answered Johanna, walking into the room with that brisk way she had, "Wherein Katniss Everdeen agreed to support the rebels in exchange for captured Victors' immunity. Katniss had upheld her side of the bargain, and so shall we."

Enobaria smirks, causing Johanna to growl again, "Don't look so smug, we'll kill you anyway."

"Sit down please Katniss." Coin shut the door, ignoring Johanna and Enobaria's banter, "I've asked you here to settle a debate. Today we will execute Snow. In previous weeks, hundreds of his accomplices in the oppression of Panem have been tried and now await their own deaths. However, the suffering in the Districts have been so extreme that these measures appear insufficient to the victims. In fact, many are calling for a complete annihilation of those who held Capitol citizenship. However, in the interest of maintaining a sustainable population, we cannot afford this.

"So, an alternative had been placed on the table. Since my colleagues and I can come to no consensus, it had been agreed that we will let the Victors decide. A majority of four will approve the plan. No one may abstain from the vote. What had been proposed is that in lieu of eliminating the entire Capitol population, we have a final, symbolic Hunger Games, using the children directly related to those who held the most power."

"What?" Johanna and Calla speak at the same time. Calla sounded more outraged than curious as Johanna had.

Coin doesn't seem surprised, "We hold another Hunger Games using Capitol children."

"Are you joking?" Peeta asked, sounding almost as outraged at Calla as they both yelled at the woman.

"No." Was the simple answer, "I should also tell you that if we do hold the Games, it will be known it was done with your approval, although the individual breakdown of you votes will be kept secret for you own security."

"Was this Plutarch's idea?" Haymitch spoke up, leaning forward a little on the table.

Calla looked at him, the annoyance and unbelieving expression clearly showing.

"No, it was mine. It seemed to balance the need for vengeance with the least loss of life. You may cast your votes."

Calla shook her head again, looking down at our intertwined hands and mumbled, "Figures."

I had to agree with her. Coin had never had to deal with going into the Games or having to put children through them. This woman didn't understand what it was like…and now she was asking the people who had gone through that to become something even worse than killers. She was asking us to do something horrible to people who didn't intentionally do us harm.

"No!" Peeta yelled, "I vote no of course! We can't have another Hunger Games!"

Johanna shrugged, "Why not? It seems very fair to me. Snow even has a granddaughter. I vote yes."

Snow did have a granddaughter, I thought back to one of the many times I had 'worked' with Selena Snow, that girl probably wouldn't last a minute, but she was also a relative of Snow and everyone knew that they were a sneaky family.

"So do I. Let them have a taste of their own medicine." Enobaria agreed with Johanna which wasn't such a surprise really, Enobaria was one sadistic bitch.

"This is why we rebelled! Remember?" Peeta looked around the room, trying to find someone to back him up, "Annie?"

I looked over at Annie, watching as she shook her head, "I vote no with Peeta."

"No, it would set a bad precedent. We have to stop viewing one another as enemies. At this point unity is essential to our survival. No."

Calla sighed and glared up at Coin, her disgust at the woman evident, "I vote no. We shouldn't subject anyone else to what we were forcibly put through. You don't know what it's like to have to kill people your age and younger…no one should have to know what that's like."

"I agree with Callie. No." I said, squeezing her hand again as she smiled over at me.

Coin ignored Calla's glare, "It's down to Katniss and Haymitch."

"I vote yes…for Prim." Katniss looked at the rose she had brought with her as she answered.

"Haymitch, it's up to you."

Calla looked over at her father and he looked back for a moment, "I'm with the Mockingjay."

"Excellent. That carries the vote." Coin went to continue but Calla shoved her chair back and it fell to the floor with a loud bang as she stalked out of the room, surprising everyone as she slammed the door closed behind her with a loud bang.

* * *

><p>"Callie, come on." I knocked on the door to our room again, leaning against the frame.<p>

She had locked herself in her room, something that had only happened once before after she'd had a panic attack in Thirteen. I was worried, the last panic attack had ended in someone having to sedate her and I didn't want that to happen again.

"Callie." I knocked again, surprised when the door opened this time.

"What?"

I sighed, "We have to go; Coin expects us to be there. And after that you and I can go explore or something."

She thought for a moment, torn between wanting to see Snow die and not wanting to be near the people that were about to allow one last Games. Seeing Snow die seemed to win out because she stepped out of the room, moving some hair from her eyes. I grabbed her hand, pulling her to me like I had this morning when she woke me from my nightmare.

"It's going to be the last one." I pressed my forehead to hers as I spoke and then caught her lips with mine before she could reply.

"I love you."

Calla gave me a small smile, "I love you too."


	18. 18: Callalily - Age 24

"Happy birthday Callie." I looked over at Finnick as he walked into the house, dripping wet from swimming.

I'd been staying with him in Four since they sent Katniss back to District Twelve due to an 'unstable mental condition'. I knew why she killed Coin instead of Snow. Coin had allowed the attacks on those kids in the square, she'd killed Katniss' little sister. It was sickening and I probably would have done the same thing.

"Thanks Finn." I smiled.

He walked into the bathroom, coming out with a towel and drying himself off before walking over and pulling me into him. We kissed for a moment and I pulled back first with a sigh.

"I think I should probably go home for the day." I paused, surprised as Finnick smiled, "I may be angry at dad about his decision, but I haven't spent a birthday without him."

"Thank the Capitol. I thought that I was going to have to kidnap you or something. He already knows we're coming."

I scrunch my nose at the old saying and then smile at him while playfully hitting him on the chest, "What if I said I didn't want to go?"

"As I said, I was going to kidnap you." He laughed, "You know better than anyone that I'm good for that."

"Watch yourself Odair." We smiled at each other and kissed one more time before I break our embrace to take a shower.

"Hey dad." I gave him a small smile and hugged him. Though I was still angry with his decision, it was nice to see him. Haymitch was still my dad, he was the only blood I had left…I couldn't be angry at him forever.

"I've missed you Callie."

I put my face in his shoulder and smiled, smelling alcohol in his clothing. That was nothing new though, I couldn't remember a time that he didn't smell like booze. It was a familiar scent and I found that I had missed it slightly while in District Four. It reminded me of Chaff when I would hang out with both of them during the Games in the mentor room.

"I missed you too, dad." We pulled apart and then Finnick grabbed my hand as my dad and I led him out of the train station. Finnick had only been to Twelve for his Victory Tour and some of the Victory Tours that his tributes went on, in all the years that I had been escaping to Four he had never come here…he'd never seen my District Twelve. I knew that it wouldn't be the same as it used to be; apparently they were using the land for farming now, there was minimal mining anymore and that was just to help the other districts out.

We piled into a car; I sat in the middle between my dad and Finnick, looking out the windows at the place I hadn't seen since before the third Quarter Quell, since Snow had blown the place up.

"Katniss and Peeta are slowly mending their relationship."

I smiled, "Saw that one coming."

"What, you weren't routing for Gale?" My dad laughed and I shrugged.

"Gale and Katniss are too similar to make it as a couple."

"So this is Twelve?" Finnick and I walked around, looking at the aftermath of the bombs.

The fence was currently gone, so I grabbed Finnick's hand and walked through what used to be a clearing but was now a crater. I looked around, surprised, before heading toward the forest where Sterling and I, and eventually Gale and Katniss, went hunting. Sterling to take care of his family and myself to get away from the town and my dad for a while.

"You should have seen this place before." I spoke, looking over my shoulder for a moment back at the crater.

Finnick smiled beside me as I led him through the forest, knowing the trails like the back of my hand. I stopped in the middle, not going very far from the trail and sat down on one of the large rocks that overlooked a small stream.

"My dad used to tell me about all the times that he took my mom here." I spoke, looking around for a moment. I hadn't spoken about my mom much to anyone, let alone Finn, but sitting here and having reminders about the life I used to have before the rebellion made it spill out before I could actually think about what I was saying.

It was quiet in the forest, something that I didn't like normally, quiet meant trouble…it meant someone was trying to come and slit your throat when you guard was down.

Finnick sat down beside me, looking curious, "Yeah?"

"Yeah. They both lived in the Seam and she didn't know much about hunting because she had three older brothers who would come out here and do it for her. But, she started coming out after one of them got sick and the other two had to start working in the mines. And, on her fourth time, or something like that, she got really lost and my dad found her while he was out hunting. He'd been back from the Games for less than a week and I guess he just wanted a reason to get out of the house for a while.

"Anyway, he found her in the middle of the forest and she was bawling her eyes out because she didn't think she would be able to find her way home and my dad stopped and called her stupid. Which is definitely something he would do, his people skills were horrible even back then. Eventually he led her back to the trail and walked her home, after that though they would start meeting at the fence and going out together and finally they started telling people they were a couple and all that." I laughed, looking over at Finnick, "And then after two weeks of being away from the Games the Capitol killed his mom and littler brother and he sort of became a recluse for a while.

"So, finally, after about a year of this, my mom goes to his house and demands to see him. Apparently she was yelling and called him an asshole and a bunch of other names, demanding to know why he would just start ignoring her and leaving her to go to the forest by herself all the time. She smacked him and, according to dad, brought him back to his senses and he started taking her out to hunt again. After a while they finally moved in with each other when they were eighteen and then two years later my mom decided that she wanted to have a kid. According to dad, he was apprehensive about it, not that I really blame him. But she won out and she got pregnant with me. Her oldest brother wasn't happy about it; he wouldn't talk to her for months after he found out. And then, Snow told my dad that he had to start working for him, you know the speech he gives about paying back his sponsors, and of course my dad told him no. Well, after I was born my mom and two of her brothers were shot while they were walking around the Seam. Supposedly they'd been caught trying to break into someone's house or something ridiculous like that."

Finnick grabbed my hand again, letting me talk. That was one thing I loved about him, sometimes words would just come rushing out, it could have been some rant about the Capitol's fashion sense or a nightmare about the Games, but he always let me finish. He knew when I needed to get something out of my system even when I didn't.

"What happened to her other brother?"

That and he listened…that was another reason I loved him.

I shrugged, "I don't know. He refused to even see me. Dad said that her brother never really like him and after his sister died he was really vindictive and angry, so he didn't really go out of his way to meet me. When I was seven, I found out where he lived and walked there without dad…he slammed the door in my face before I could even tell him my name. "

"Sounds like an ass."

"No, he'd just lost everyone he cared about because of dad. But when I told him, dad got really mad and went back to his house. He told me that he just yelled but his knuckles were bloody and he had a black eye when he came back."

Finnick laughed, "Classic Haymitch, then."

"Pretty much." I joined him, the two of us disrupting the serenely quiet forest.

"So, you're raising geese now?" I looked over at my dad and laughed, looking at the birds as they roamed around in the cage he'd built for them.

He leaned against the cage and shrugged, "They're easier to raise than you were."

"Thanks dad." We laughed and I back up as one of the geese hissed at me, "You're birds are just like you. Slightly evil and cranky all the time."

"I'm not cranky all the time."

I quirked an eyebrow at him, "Fine, just most of the time."

"I'll give you that one."

I backed farther away from the geese, surprised by the amount of hissing that they were doing at me, "What is up with these things?"

"They're like watchdogs."

"Satan's birds." I mumbled, shaking my head at them.

My dad laughed at me, "No they're not."

"Any bird that hisses at you is not a good bird. Hell, any bird that looks at you with those kind of eyes are evil."

"What're you talking about?"

"You're birds have these beady little eyes that glare into your soul or something."

"Are you doing morphling?"

"Yes."

We laughed at each other, falling back into the rhythm that we'd had when I was a teenager. It felt nice to be in Twelve again, although I would continue living with Finnick in Four. I loved the ocean too much to move back here.

"So, when's he going to pop the question, huh?"

I looked over at my dad and he took a large swig of his beer, "What're you talking about?"

"You and Finnick have been living together for a year and you've been on the verge of dating since you won you Games, hell even a little before that. Which means this whole thing has been going on for seven years, when are you two just going to get it over with and get married?"

Snorting, I rolled my eyes at him, "I don't know and that's none of your business."

"You're my little girl, it's definitely my business."

"I'm not little."

"Well, you could have fooled me." I looked behind me to see Finnick approaching, a large smile on his face as I glared up at him.

"Shut up."

"Be safe of there. Don't drown or anything."

I hugged my dad goodbye, laughing as he spoke, "I'll see you in a couple of weeks, dad. Don't let your birds kill anyone while I'm gone."

"I'm not going to promise anything."

Laughing, I turn to Peeta and Katniss, "Make sure he stays out of trouble, alright?"

"Don't worry, we'll keep him busy."

"Thanks guys."

Finnick and I boarded the train, leaving behind my family in Twelve as we left to go home. I leaned into Finnick's side as the train took off to take us back to Four and smiled as he started playing with my hair. I was still debating on whether or not to grow it out again, in the end I knew I would grow it back out though, sometimes looking in the mirror just reminded me of everything Finnick and my family had been through and it was just too much. I would be nice to have one less thing remind me of what had happened only a year ago.

"I'm going to have to start visiting more." I sighed and looked up into the sea green eyes that belonged to Finnick. He ran his hand through my hair again and smiled down at me.

"We should. Peeta and Katniss said something about starting a book about everything that's happened, go through the first Games to the last. I think you and I could help them out with a few details."

I nodded, "Yeah, that could be fun."

We fell silent for a moment, leaning into each other. I let the noise of the train lull me close to sleep before Finnick spoke again, "What were you and Haymitch talking about before I walked up?"

"He asked me when we were going to get married." I laughed, "He said that seven years have been long enough and that we should suck it up and getting hitched already."

Finnick snorted, "It hadn't been seven years."

"He said that it's been destined to happen since I was seventeen."

"Only Haymitch." He shook his head in disbelief for a moment, "Although, maybe we should consider it…"

I looked at Finnick as he turned his attention out the window, "What're you talking about Finn?"

"Well, he's right. It had been seven years."

"You've lost me…completely."

He laughed, "When you name got called for the Games and I kissed you that day you rode on the chariots, I knew that I should have said something earlier, but I didn't know until then what I should do before then. And then, with everything that happened before the Quarter Quell…I don't know, I just didn't say anything because, well, we both had things we had to sort out. I mean we were both working for Snow and we were both dealing with our own problems, so I pushed the thought of…being together away because one of us, or both, was going to end up getting hurt if we did that. And then during the Quell when Mags died, I finally realized that I didn't care because we could die at any minute. Turns out that almost happened anyway after Haymitch and Plutarch got out of the arena. When snow got you, Peeta, and Johanna I didn't know what to do and I kept thinking that I should have just said something to you after your Games when I had the chance.

"And now, well, we have the chance to finally be happy with having to deal with Snow, or clients, or anything like that. Maybe we should start thinking about not worrying that something bad is constantly going to happen."

I smiled at him and sat up, "We should've just told each other. Things might have been easier.

"We'll never know now. So we should just work on focusing on the future."

We looked at each other for another moment before I leaned my head on his chest again, "I love you Finn."

"I love you too Callie." He kissed the top of my head and started playing with my hair again.


	19. 19: Finnick - Age 26

"So…I'm going to ask her." I looked over at Haymitch as he took a large swig of his drink.

We'd been coming back to Twelve a lot recently, due to Calla getting a bit homesick at times. I didn't mind though, I loved seeing her this way, running around in the snow with some of the kids and throwing snowballs with them. After her snow filled Games, I was surprised to see that she was actually having fun out there.

Haymitch laughed from beside me, "Finally."

We were sitting inside, the large windows in the kitchen giving me ample space to see Calla while she was outside. There hadn't been many times when Haymitch and I were alone together, his daughter was normally sitting beside me whenever he was here, but this time I was glad that she was outside, I could talk to Haymitch about what I'd been thinking about since we'd visited on Calla's birthday.

"Yeah, I don't know how I'm going to ask yet, but I think that, now that we know everything is going to be better, it'll work out for the two of us."

Calla threw a snowball at one of the kids, hitting the little boy in the chest and then ducking as the group ganged up on her. Five of them hit her, the rest missing as she tried to evade them all. Her laugh echoed through the town and into the house and I smiled at the sound. It wasn't often that she'd laugh anymore, not since the Quarter Quell and not since being tortured by Snow. That laugh had become a gift, something that was starting to come out more and more now that the rebellion was over and won, I found myself hoping it would become a normal sound again.

"Just keep her safe alright. I don't want to have to come to your house and kill you."

It was my turn to laugh this time, looking over at Haymitch, "Don't worry about that."

I knew he was serious, though Haymitch's family had grown from two all the way to at least five people over the years; Calla was one of the only people that had been with him the longest. He'd raised her after Snow had killed his wife when most people would have just sent the kid to an orphanage. She was the most important person in his life.

"I'm serious."

I nodded, "I know."

"Good." Haymitch took another swig of beer. He set the bottle on the table again and looked at it for a moment, "When I asked her mother for the first time, she told me no."

Surprised, I took my eyes off of Calla's snowball war and looked at her father, he'd never told me much about his life before, "Why?"

"Apparently because I asked her to casually. We were eating dinner and I just asked her on a whim." He shook his head, "So, when she said no, I thought she meant it seriously, like she didn't actually want to marry me. I didn't know what to do and I just stared at her from across the table like I'd been hit. After a moment or two, though, she started laughing, in fact she almost fell out of her chair, and told me that I need to ask her again. She told me I needed to something more romantic than that and I had no idea how to be romantic, I'd always figured that you just asked."

"But it eventually worked out though?"

He nodded, "A month later, I took her out to the woods and asked her."

"Calla was telling me that you and her mom used to go there."

"We did. I started taking Calla out there when she was seven and her first time, I let go of her hand and she somehow got lost."

I laughed again, thinking of a seven year old Calla getting lost in the woods. When she'd taken me that first time, she knew that place so well that it was like she wasn't even watching where we were going. I could just imagine Calla at seven losing Haymitch and just walking wherever she thought he would be.

"She ended up at this lake in the middle of the forest," Haymitch continued, "and she was just sitting there with her feet in the water, acting like nothing was wrong."

I smiled, "Really?"

"Yeah, scared me to death. I didn't know what to do," Haymitch shook his head with a smile.

It surprised me, seeing this version of Haymitch. Calla had talked about him being like this sometimes, but I'd never witnessed it firsthand. When he talked about Calla he seemed to become another person. He seemed almost…human.

"Calla has a knack for scaring the shit out of people."

"She got that from her mother."

"Come on." Calla grabbed my hand, trying to drag me outside as it began snowing again.

I laughed at her attempts, using my other hand to grab the door frame before she succeeded, "What're you doing?"

"It's snowing, I want to play in the snow."

"What are you twelve?"

Calla made a face at me, "No, but I love the snow and you said that you've never really seen it before."

"I can see it through the window. It's cold out there plus it's dark outside. We're not even going to be able to see what we're doing."

"Please?" She stopped tugging on my hand, looking up at me through her eyelashes. I sighed, knowing that I couldn't refuse her when she gave me that look and grabbed my coat from where it was hanging beside the door.

"So, besides snowball fights, what exactly do you do in the snow?"

Calla sent me a triumphant smile and grabbed my hand again after I threw my coat on, "Well, you can make snow angels or build snowmen."

"As I said before…what are you, twelve?"

"Yes. Now make a snow angel with me." She fell on her back on the ground, moving her arms and legs before standing up and looking at her handy work.

"That doesn't look like an angel at all."

She glared at me, walking closer with a dangerous smile on her face. Backing away, I kept my eyes on her, unsure about what she was going to do until she pounced on me. I caught her without thinking, surprised when I slipped on some ice and fell back into the snow.

We stayed like that for a moment, the sky above us dark as she laid over me in the snow. I didn't move even as I felt it melting through my clothes. Calla was beautiful in this environment, the moon was shinning and illuminating every flake of snow as it fell in her hair. She'd grown it out, it was still shorter than what it had been, but it was close to its normal length. The flakes falling in it made it look like she'd sewn pearls into her hair.

I kissed her, closing my eyes as I tangled a hand in her hair and wrapped my other one tightly around her waist.

"Marry me." We pulled apart and I looked up at her, catching her gray eyes with mine.

Her brow scrunched up in confusion, "What?"

"Marry me."

Calla smiled, "Of course."

"I forgot to give you this last night."

Calla looked up at me from the table where she sat drinking her coffee with Haymitch as I entered, "Huh?"

I held out the ring, grabbing her left hand from the mug and slid it onto her ring finger. Inspecting it for a moment, I smiled. Haymitch raised an eyebrow at us, "So you found a way to ask her? That was quick."

"It was more spontaneous than I would like to admit."

Calla laughed, "I dragged him out to make snow angels."

"What are you twelve?"

"That's what I asked her." I smirked over at Calla as she made a face at Haymitch and me.

"For you information," she began indignantly, "I love the snow and snow is for snow angels."

Haymitch shook his head at her, "Sometimes I wonder where I went wrong."

"Shut up."


	20. 20: Callalily - Age 17

_"Let the 69__th__ Hunger Games begin!" _Seneca Crane's voice broke through the silence as everyone arrived at the top of their chutes.

**One**

I started counting as soon as the minute countdown finished signaling everyone could safely (supposedly) get off their platforms. I knew it would help calm me down before I stepped off of my own and tried to get a backpack.

**Two**

I looked around the arena. It was a forest, but it was covered in snow and the flakes were falling down heavily, it almost looked like a blizzard. It reminded me sickly of home and I suddenly had a longing for my father, but I couldn't think about him right now. I had to get myself out of the bloodbath alive if I wanted any chance of winning this.

**Three**

Kids were tripping in the snow; apparently it was deeper than it looked, and two kids fell down as they made their way to the Cornucopia. The rest just pushed through it, getting to the golden horn very slowly, The male tribute from Two had been lifted close to me, so I could use the ruts he had made in the snow on his way to my advantage, slightly.

**Four**

My mind ran to my dad and Finnick for another moment, knowing that they were probably watching, trying to figure out what the hell I was going. Truthfully, I was starting to wonder that very same thing myself.

**Five**

I thought of Finnick's lips on mine after the parade at the beginning, when they introduced the tributes to the Capitol. He wasn't happy about me being painted black, neither was my dad, but I knew the real reason behind it. Snow had given the richer people of the Capitol a preview of what come if I won, which, at the moment, seemed highly unlikely.

**Six**

I ran the plan through my head one more time. Avoid the Cornucopia, try to get a backpack, and last, but not least, find some type of water source. If I didn't find any good water I could always just make a fire and melt the snow, but I wasn't even sure if the snow was safe at this point. But if I couldn't find any water I was certainly going to be screwed. If that was the case I definitely wouldn't make it past the first two days when the weaker tributes always died.

**Seven**

Find water. This place was definitely a forest, it reminded me a little of home where Sterling and I would hunt, the snow would help me find animals, and it would also help me hunt down tributes…if I was forced to come to that. And if I wanted to survive, to win for Finnick, it would definitely come to that. I knew better than to trust anything that came out of the sky, it was controlled by the Gamemakers and the last time someone had done that they'd had a seizure. I didn't want to go out because of some stupid reason like that.

**Eight**

The eighteen year old boy was already at the Cornucopia, slaughtering people as they approached, two kids ran off toward the forest, knowing better than to try and attack him. They left backpacks and I couldn't understand why. They needed some type of supplies, what did they think they would find in there?

**Nine**

I took a deep breath, readying myself to run toward one of the backpacks that no one had touched to my right. From what I'd seen during my surveying, no one had gone that way. It seemed like it would be my best bet at the moment.

**Ten**

I kicked off the platform, getting to the ruts in the snow the boy from Two had made and forced my way to the backpack I had spotted. When I reached it, I threw the straps around my shoulders and heading toward the patch of forest to my right, I narrowly missed someone's knife as it was hurled at me.

The jungle was dark and I didn't stop running until I could no longer hear anything from the clearing where the giant Cornucopia sat. The snow wasn't so deep here; the canopy of trees keeping all the snow from falling down and it was a lot easier to get through. Finally, when I could no longer hear the noises of the ensuing battle, I slowed to a brisk walk, looking around until I felt comfortable enough to stop and check out what was in the bag I had grabbed. Opening it, I found an empty canteen, a small knife, a box of matches, and a sleeping bag. I was surprised at the bounty, usually these things weren't very far from the Cornucopia, but I was thankful all the same.

"Alright." I nodded to myself and put everything back into the pack as I began my hunt for some type of water.

_Day two. _I thought, packing everything up and trekking back to the small pond I'd found to fill my canteen again. The pound I'd found had been frozen over, but by some stroke of luck the ice hadn't been that thick and I had been able to break it up a little with my knife yesterday. When I came to it, I broke through the hole again, the ice even easier to get through this time.

Ten kids had died last night. Both from Eleven were gone, I was pretty sure that they had died at the Cornucopia. Mitchell was dead too, I didn't know how he'd died, and I also didn't really know who he was, but I was sad all the same, he had been one of the last connections to District Twelve I currently had in the arena.

I sighed, taking a quick swift from the canteen before filling it up once more and shoving it back into my pack. The water was cold, but it was enough to fully wake me up and my thoughts ran to the mentor room. The Career mentors would be taking bets by now, with the exception of Mags and Finnick, Chaff was probably drunk and my dad (if this had been just another Games with kids he didn't know) would have been drinking with him. I could see everything in the mentor room clearly; having been in there every year since I was born had imprinted the schedule of everyone in there. I missed the room, missed being a little kid again when I could fall asleep in Chaff's or my dad's laps.

I threw these thoughts out of my mind, shaking my head to physically get them out. Today would be a long one, I could just feel it.

Standing up, I headed away from the pong and continued walking along, hoping someone would take out the Careers for me. I didn't want to kill anyway, but if it came to that, I knew I would do it. If not for myself then for my dad and Finnick.

"Well, well, well…look what we have here."

I flew around, gripping the small knife from my pack tight in my hand as I found the eighteen year old male from District Nine, my eyes widened slightly as I took him in. He was huge and from what I'd witnessed at the training center he was good with most of the weapons, especially with the large sword that he was currently wielding.

And here I'd been, hoping I could at least make it to the top eight. I guess the odds weren't quite in my favor. So much for winning for Finnick…

"I'm surprised, you know, considering that you're the infamous Haymitch Abernathy's kid…I sort of expected more. I mean, he won the second Quarter Quell."

He stalked forward and I retreated away from him, gripping so tightly at the knife in my hand that my knuckles were almost as white as the snow that covered the ground.

"I expected a less cocky eighteen year old."

He laughed, "Why? You know just as well as I do that I'm going to win."

"You're hopeful."

"I'm the oldest one here, there's no way I'm going to die."

I raised an eyebrow, trying not to lower my guard during our chat, "You obviously didn't pay much attention to the previous Games did you? Five years ago, a fourteen year old from District Four killed two eighteen year olds after they killed his District partner. He went on to win."

"Yeah, but Finnick Odair's a bit of a whore, don't you think?"

My eyes narrowed and I felt my blood boil in anger, but I bit my tongue. I knew better than to say anything as the District Nine male stalked closer, a large malicious smile on his face.

"No retort?"

"I don't see the need to talk to you. You seem so sure of yourself that I wouldn't want you to have to deal with the guilt of almost knowing the girl you killed later on."

He laughed, "Trust me, there won't be any guilt."

Taking on more step, he stopped wasting time and lunged forward with his sword. I narrowly avoided it, having to move closer to him so I could cut his arm with my knife. He glared at me and lunged again as I blocked his sword with my small knife. I was strong and Sterling and I had been sparring with knives for a long time, I knew a bit about holding someone stronger than me off, but at that moment he kept pushing, the blade of his sword pushing my knife slightly to the left and he got a cut on my shoulder. I wasn't going to cry…I wasn't going to let the Capitol or this District Nine boy to have that satisfaction.

He backed up, his smile growing, "You're a lot more fun than I thought you would be. Maybe I'll have a different kind of fun with you before I kill you, let you know what having a man is like before you die. Consider it a gift."

I gritted my teeth, not calling out at the pain in my shoulder was taking all of my control, I had to do something before fighting him became something much worse. I could only imagine what Finnick and my dad were doing right now.

I backed up one more time, hoping that we were getting close to the large snare that I had set up in the middle of the night and hid with snow. If I looked behind me to find out just where it was he would realize what I was doing and would start his extracurricular fun now instead of toying with me some more. If he was going to act like an animal, I would trap him like one and if I managed to kill him, hopefully I wouldn't feel as guilty about it later.

Taking one more step back, I saw the snare from the corner of my eye and smiled slightly, I just needed him to move a little to his left and if he walked three feet closer, he would be mine. The District Nine male didn't seem to be able to see it, the snow I'd covered it with the night before had been added on by the still falling flakes, but I was pretty sure that even if I had left it out in the open this man wouldn't have noticed it. He didn't seem all that observant. I prayed for my luck to continue for a moment, waiting for him to stalk a little closer. If I could just make him think that he had me cornered, I could catch him and I would be able to live for a little bit longer.

I backed into the tree, the grip on my knife and the cold making my hand go numb as I never let my gaze leave his harsh eyes. Just one more foot, one more foot and I would have him. I might even be able to leave him there and let the wilderness kill him; I wouldn't have the guilt plaguing me if I did that.

…Hell, maybe the Career pack would come along and take care of him for me if I left him there.

I kept my face hard, refusing to look away from him. _Just four more steps_ and then he would be mine.

The smile on the man's face grew a malicious smile that made fear course through me. If he missed the snare I would be dead and I didn't want to think of what he was planning to do to me before he took the final blow. The pain in my shoulder was aching more as the cold gripped its way through my now torn jacket. If he would just move…just four fucking steps closer I would be able to get this over with and do something about the blood that was seeping through my clothes.

He stalked toward me. One step, two, three…four.

I had him! The snare caught his ankle.

"What the-"

He was pulled up, now hanging upside down, his sword falling from his grip in surprise. I grabbed it, holding it at his throat for a moment. I didn't want to kill him, no matter what he was planning on doing to me when he had thought he had the upper hand.

"You think you're clever Twelve?"

Glaring, I gave him a smile, "Yeah, I suppose I do."

"You know it's only a matter of time before the Careers come after you." He was trying to get under my skin; I forced an expression of indifference on my face as I debated on leaving him hanging there. Maybe all the blood rushing to his head would do the job for me before the Careers even got to him. "At least if I had killed you I would have made it quick, I'd have made you feel like a woman for the first and only time of your miserable life, but now the Careers are going to find you and you're going to have one slow and painful death to look forward too."

Make me feel like a woman for the first time in my life, huh? I laughed, the sound coming out hollow, for a minute I wasn't sure if I had actually made the sound, "Raping someone doesn't make them feel like a woman you pig. Anything the Careers do to me would be more welcoming than you."

I went to turn around, to leave him hanging there left to his fate, all the while hearing my dad's words. _Never turn your back on your enemy. Don't give them a way to surprise you. _

"I can't wait until Haymitch has to watch you die. It's too bad that I can't be a fly on the wall for that, because we all know he's going to fly off the handle."

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes for a moment, my blood beginning to boil in rage again, "Shut up."

"Maybe he'll die too." I could hear the sadistic smile in his voice, "Wouldn't that be tragic? The whole Abernathy family just wiped out."

"Shut up!" I threw the knife at him before I could think, to angry to do anything else as I yelled. He was right and I didn't like it.

When I looked back, I saw my knife hanging out of this throat, a smile on his face for a moment, "I didn't think you had it in you, Twelve."

He croaked the words out and the light leaves his eyes. A moment later the canon went off and I realized that I was a killer…I had killed someone, an eighteen year old that was twice my size and twice as mean and I had killed him. The man had been asking for it, threatening not only to kill me but to rape me. So why did I suddenly feel so horrible? He had been right about one thing though, I was going to die in that arena and my dad would probably end up dead too. The only thing I could do after that was to make sure that I won…and at that moment I didn't know if I could do it.

I hoped that Finnick wouldn't be too devastated when I couldn't.

I leaned my head against the tree I was in, wanting to just give up. It was still snowing; the little flakes were occasionally coming down through canopy of trees and hitting me in the face as I looked up. I loved the snow, but all I wanted right then was for it to stop. I had managed to stop the bleeding in my shoulder, but I didn't have anything to fix the hole the man from Nine had cut through my jacket and the cold was still sweeping through it, even through the sleeping bag that I was using. It was sad that only a full day had passed and I had already had to resort to murder. I had never thought I would be a killer even in self defense. I wasn't cut out for these damn Games.

Looking down, I bit my lip, wondering if falling from this distance would do more than break a bone or just immobilize me too much until the Careers caught up to me. There was only way to find out…

A parachute fell down as I began to loosen the rope I had tied around my waist to keep from falling out of the tree. I grabbed it, opening the contents and finding a loaf of green, fish shaped, break; it was from Four and as I pulled out a slip of paper I knew exactly who had sent it to me. I smiled, reading the words on the paper before pulling out the bread and ripping a small piece of it off. The bread was salty, and tasted like some type of weird grass, I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it didn't really matter to me, food was food and the bread tasted pretty good anyway.

I looked back at the slip of paper. It hadn't been a long message, but it didn't need to be. Finnick knew me well enough to know that a small reminder was all it was going to take.

_Win for me. _

I bit my lip and closed the container, packing my things back into the pack, the newly sent break being stuffed in there as well, and climbed down the tree, jumping when I could without hurting myself. Angling back, toward the pong, I planned on refilling my water container. I was going to win for my dad and Finnick…I didn't know if I could, but I was going to try my damndest to do so.


	21. 21: Callalily - Age 17

"We need to discuss where the ceremony is going to take place."

Calla sighed from beside me, bored with this whole thing after we just sat down. Plutarch wanted to televise our wedding, which seemed pointless to me…but because of that, he had hired one of the best wedding coordinators from the Capitol. We'd explained to him already that we didn't want anything all that bright or…Capitol-like, but I don't think he really understood that.

"Um…" Calla bit her lip and looked over at me, "We haven't exactly decided that really."

I shrugged at her look, "I don't really care."

"That's not helpful." She made a small face at me and I sent her a smile as she turned back to Johnathan, "I suppose we'll do it in Four. I want to do it on the beach though, outside."

Johnathan wrote it down, "If it started to storm?"

"They can bring umbrellas just in case." Calla shrugged and I laughed, covering it up with a cough as we were both glared at.

"This is a serious matter. Have the two of you thought nothing about any of this?"

"No."

Johnathan shook his head, "Well, you should start doing that. Do you have any themes or colors in mind?"

"Gray and sea green." I answered quickly, without much thought.

Calla looked at me, an eyebrow raised, "Maybe I wanted black and white."

"Do you really want black and white?" I knew the answer already; she was just giving this guy a hard time because she didn't want anything big and Plutarch was forcing us to have some extravagant thing. After all we'd been through in the Capitol, both of us sort of wanted to be left alone.

"No."

I laughed, "Okay then."

"Music?" Johnathan continued with a sigh.

I was going to let Calla have that one, she was the music person here, "Well, since I'm from Twelve and Finn's from Four I think we should have a mix of both, you know? Maybe alternate between the two styles of music."

"Alright, I can work with that. Do you have anything in mind for flowers and centerpieces?"

Calla shrugged, "Um…I don't know. Lilies, seashells…something that incorporates both of our districts."

"How many people will you be inviting?"

Calla and I looked at each, she had the most family and the most friends, Mags was one of the few people that I really had left and she had died during the Quarter Quell.

"Well…" Calla paused for a moment, I was fine with her answering this question, I didn't know the answer to it myself, "Six people. Or maybe seven, if you wanted to invite Annie."

She looked over at me, surprising me about her offer for inviting Annie. Did I want to invite her? Could I risk her having some outburst in the middle of the wedding and possibly hurting someone? I didn't know, and I couldn't answer her.

"Only six or seven?" Johnathan spoke before I could answer, saving me from the question, "That won't be good for publicity; we'll invite some of the townspeople."

She bit her lip, "A lot of the people close to us were killed either before or during the war."

"Oh…well." Johnathan seemed to be at a loss for words, a first since he'd shown up at our house, "We'll be meeting tomorrow for cake flavors and decorations. It was nice meeting the two of you."

Calla and I stood up, shaking hands with the man and walking him to the door as he left.

* * *

><p>"This is not what I wanted when you asked me to married you. This is going to take weeks." Calla sighed and plopped down onto the couch and I laughed, sitting with her and wrapping my arm around her shoulders.<p>

"Maybe we should just go elope."

She shook her head, "My dad would kill us."

* * *

><p>"Callie, wake up."<p>

She turned in the bed, clutching one of the blankets tighter to her chest as she slept in a small ball and snored lightly.

"Callie." I poked her rib through the blanket, causing her to jump from surprise.

Calla sat up, looking at me groggily, "What the hell?"

"We're going swimming, get up."

"I'm in my nightclothes." I gave her a look and a coy smile, seeing her get the hint as her eyes widened, "Oh."

We walked onto the beach and I let go of her hand, standing in front of her as I pulled the nightshirt over her head and threw it in the sand beside her. I'd never actually seen her naked (or almost naked as she was now) before, which, considering our pasts and how we'd met up at the apartment all those times just seemed strange, but every time we changed or anything she went to the bathroom. I knew why though. Calla was afraid to be naked in front of anyone that wasn't paying for it. At least then she knew what they wanted; she could recognize the sweeping look in a client's eyes and know that they were fine taking advantage of her. With someone, anyone, else it was different, she was cautious, she wouldn't let her guard down…wouldn't let them take the only thing that she had left (at least in her mind). And to add to that, Calla was self conscious, even though there were plenty of clients that had paid for her services, and many more than once, all of the gossip magazines in the Capitol had commented about how there was something wrong with her looks.

She was too plain for some of the people in the Capitol.

I pulled my shirt off as well, throwing it on the ground with Calla's.

She pulled off her sleep pants, standing there half naked for a moment, some kind of internal battle going on in her head for a moment before she slowly slipped off her bra and underwear. I was surprised, looking at her completely naked as she stood, watching for some clue on whether I agreed with those stupid gossip magazines.

I didn't, Calla was more beautiful than anything I'd ever seen. More beautiful than anything that came out of District One. She had ample breasts, nothing like the women in the Capitol who would enlarge theirs every other year or so. They were natural and big and beautiful. The curve of her body accentuating them and every other part of her.

In that moment, Calla had given me a gift.

A gift that no one else had ever received. She didn't willingly get naked with her clients, Calla was forced to…but here as she looked at me nervously, biting her lip, I knew that this was the only thing she would ever be able to give me that meant so much more than sex.

She had chosen to show me, and that was something I would never forget.

I smiled at her, the moon above us shinning on her as if she were some sort of angel…some sort of mermaid with legs that had crawled out of the sea just for me. Walking to her, I ran a hand through her hair, tangling my fingers in it for a moment before kissing her.

"You're beautiful." I whispered the words into her lips, "More beautiful than anything I have ever seen."

That signature giggle escaped her lips, "You're lying. But I still love you."

"I wouldn't lie to you about this."

I pulled away from her and stripped down fully as well, watching as she surveyed me for a moment and then she smiled, a wide smile, her teeth, fixed by the Capitol before her Games, showing. I grabbed her hand, leading her to the water, the waves lapping at our feet for a moment as we walked deeper into the water.

Calla dunked her head under, taking a deep breath as she wet her hair. I continued holding her hand as she went below the surface, in Thirteen, and even for a while here, she'd had problems with water. She'd had a good reason of course, the Capitol electrocuting her in that pool had damaged her in ways that I was still trying the help her fix. Sometimes I couldn't believe that she hadn't gone crazy like Annie had.

She came up for air and moment later and smiled at me, dunking again as she pulled me with her. We looked at each other under the water and I pulled her to me, pressing my lips against her and kicking us up as we pulled apart for air.

Calla kissed me again and I wrapped a hand around her waist, the other one snaking into her hair. It was hard to believe that this whole thing could have ended so quickly only two years ago when those lizard mutts had attacked me.

"I love you Callie. I just want you to know that."

Calla blushed and leaned her forehead on mine, "I love you too, Finn."

We stayed like that for a moment, wading in the water that stopped just under her breasts. I wanted to do more than kiss her right then. Wanted something that I hadn't really every wanted before; I wanted to make her mine in every way possible. Make something that the two of us had always been forced to do something that the two of us wanted.

I wanted to take away the reminders of our past and make a clean slate, right there in that ocean that I had always called my home.

Something in my eyes must have given me away because Calla placed a hand on my cheek, smiling nervously as me for a moment before she spoke the words that I would remember for the rest of my life.

"Do it."

I was surprised at first, not sure if she was being serious before I realized that she probably had never been more serious in her life. So, I pulled her deeper into the water until she had to wrap her legs around me to keep her head above water and I inserted my hard cock inside of her.


	22. 22: Callalily - Age 22

"What the hell is this?" I stomped into the apartment, not bothering to knock as I normally would have and slammed the door angrily behind me.

"What's wrong?" Finnick stood up and walked over to me, noticing the stupid tabloid in my hand, "You know, you really should read those."

I shook my head, knowing he was right but not wanting to admit that in my anger, "I didn't exactly read it, I just saw the front page."

"What're you talking about?" Finnick laughed and I shoved the tabloid in his face. He stopped laughing, "What?"

"Apparently, we're 'Friends with Benefits'. You know, because we're the whores of the Capitol and everything, so of course we have to just whore around with each other."

He looked at the page and laughed before staring back up at me, "Relax Calla."

"I will not relax. This could piss Snow off."

Finnick's laughing stopped, "He would have done something already."

"Are you sure? Or do you think that he'd wait until we were both back home?"

"Get up!" I snuggled closer to Finnick as someone shouted, figuring that the District Four male was having another nightmare, "Let's go."

The feeling of someone roughly grabbing my arm and pulling me from the bed make me open my eyes, meeting Finnick's as the peacekeepers did the same to him. The pushed me out of the room first, forcing me to go out the hallway in nothing by my underwear and one of Finnick's shirts and they pushed me out of the building and into a car.

"What do you think you're doing?" I yelled as they pushed me inside, trying to fight against one of the peacekeepers. He won out though and roughly pushed me inside, closing the door behind him as he climbed beside me in the car.

"President Snow wants to talk to you."

"He couldn't have done it with me clothed?"

"Shut up."

I heard a gun click and looked at it, shrinking back into the other door as the black car speed toward Snow's mansion.

"Can the two of you explain the meaning of this?" Snow placed the magazine in front of Finnick and me, looking between us as he waited for an answer.

Finnick's knuckles were white as he clutched at the arm of the chair he sat in, he'd arrived only ten minutes after me, shirtless and wearing only his boxers, just as equally confused as I was. Until now at least. I looked down at the magazine, showing the cover picture of Finnick and me sitting at some restaurant the night I'd shown up at the apartment freaked out. Someone had slipped me something in my drink, more than likely my client, and when I'd finished with the job he'd sent me off without another word and I'd had to find my way to the apartment Finnick and I shared high as a fucking kite.

Snow was angry about the two winners of the Games, they would be crowned as soon as Peeta was out of the hospital and used to his new leg. Snow couldn't punish them, so he was going for the next best thing.

No one spoke; Finnick and I knew that if we told him the truth he would think we were lying, and lying wouldn't get us anywhere either. He knew we'd been to that restaurant together many times after being with our clients, he didn't care if we weren't doing what he and now the rest of the Capitol thought we were. He just wanted to make someone pay.

"W-well, what do you mean President Snow?" I broke the silence finally, gaining Snow's full attention now.

The President sent me a malicious smile and stood up; walking around his desk to the two chairs Finnick and I were occupying with his hands behind his back. "Calla, let's not beat around the bush, shall we? Now, your clients don't want your baggage…I don't think that either of you need know what will happen if this whole thing continues." He paused and leaned down, his arms on either arm rest on my chair, boxing me in. The overwhelming smell of blood and roses made me cough, "And District Twelve can't afford to lose their oldest mentor, can they?"

I looked up at Snow, glaring at him as he spoke. I couldn't believe that after everything he had done that he was now threatening my dad.

"Do you understand, Calla?"

It took me a moment, but finally, after looking into his snake-like eyes, I nodded, trying not to gag at the overwhelming smell that was emitting from him.

"I couldn't hear you."

"I understand."

He smiled and stood up, "Good. Now get out of my office. Both of you have clients to entertain tonight."

"It's three in the fucking morning." I stood up from my chair, looking once more into Snow's eyes with a renewed courage.

His smile fell off his face and he looked dangerous for a moment, "And you have clients that requested you. I suggest you go entertain."

I shot him another glare before walking with Finnick out of the room, shutting the doors to Snow's office behind us. We looked at each other for a moment, communicating without words as the peacekeepers escorted us separately down the stairs where two cars were waiting.

Pushing me toward one of them, I saw the driver and a passenger inside as I entered the backseat, throwing on my normal personality as I saw Finnick enter the front passenger side of the car in front of mine.

I looked on either side of me, seeing both men asleep as I looked up at the ceiling. This was my first time being with two men at once, I'd been with a man and a woman before…but this was different.

As soon as they had reached their destination the driver had come around and pulled me out by my hair, pushing me inside the place they wanted to have sex with me in. I hadn't had many rough clients, most preferred to feel as if I truly wanted them…they wanted to be irresistible. But this…this was rough and forceful…and painful. They'd penetrated me in every hole they could, shoving some sort of cloth in my mouth to keep me from yelling out. Normally I was able to move to some sort of happy place, anywhere but where I was, but I couldn't concentrate enough to even get remotely to that point.

Taking a deep breath, I contemplate my chances of squeezing out of bed without waking them up, figuring I would be able to do so, I wriggled free of one of them, and began carefully getting out of the bed. My thoughts ran to Finnick, but I threw him out of my mind. Snow had threatened my dad and I wasn't going to lose him because of Finnick and me not being able to leave each other alone for a while. Until things calmed down with this whole nightlock thing…Finnick and I were going to have to be careful.

I hated what Snow was doing.

I hated what Snow had made me.

I hated that some sixteen year old girl couldn't deal with the guilt of killing someone from her District and now Snow was taking it out on Finnick and me.

"Get back here, bitch."

One of them had woken up, scaring me slightly as he gripped my arm tightly and pulled me back onto the bed.

"Maybe we should go for round two."


	23. 23: Finnick - Age 26

"Really?" I laughed as Calla's face grew red, "You seriously did that?"

We were laying in bed, listening to the sounds of the storm that was raging outside. Neither of us could sleep, both enjoying the sounds of thunder mixing with the sounds of the large waves slapping against the beach, telling each other stories we had never had the chance to tell each other.

"Tell me something else." I spoke as lightning illuminated the world outside, some of it coming through the shutters and giving me more light to see Calla's naked body beside mine.

"Um," a clap of thunder sounded, "I hate the color orange."

I laughed again, "The color orange?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

A nervous giggle sounded from her and I pulled her closer to me on the bed, our foreheads and lips touching, the tip of her nipples touching my chest. I'd never been this intimate with someone, especially in bed before. We weren't kissing, just letting our lips touch as Calla spoke again, her lips moving against mine.

"I don't know…it's an obnoxious color. And seeing Flickerman's orange hair was like some bad horror film where the killer sports some unnatural birth defect or something."

I laughed again, "A birth defect?"

"Yeah, like that Freddy Kruger guy."

"I think he was burned alive and that's why he looked like that."

She bit her lip for a moment and her head scrunched up as she thought, "Oh, well…still. It was creepy."

"That is a completely ridiculous reason."

She made a noise of outrage in the back of her throat, "You're completely ridiculous."

We laughed and I grabbed her lips with mine, trying to pull her even closer to me, her nipples and breasts flattening on my chest.

"Do we really have to do this?" Calla snuggled up to me on the couch as I turned the TV on, putting Plutarch's new singing competition on as we settled in for the night.

It had been a long day with Johnathan, picking out wedding invitations envelopes and paper for them, it was a lot more than I thought was needed to have a wedding. Calla and I would have been just fine doing something small with only a few people there. It didn't seem fair that we weren't going to be allowed the small, quiet, wedding that we wanted; everything in our lives had been complicated, why couldn't we just have something simple.

"Do what?"

"Why don't we just secretly run off to Twelve and invite the people we want to come and have a simple little wedding?"

I smiled, wanting to agree with her, "I'm not sure Plutarch would be very happy about that."

"He wouldn't know."

Laughing, I slung my arm around her shoulders, "I'm sure Haymitch would agree, but I don't think that's a smart idea."

Calla scowled, "I know…but I don't want to do this thing."

"I don't either." I sighed, "What if I promise you to do that toasting thing or whatever afterwards."

She laughed, one of her eyebrows quirked as she looked at me like I was stupid, "You mean that you'll agree to let some of the District Twelve people sing as we make our first fire in the house as a married couple, toast bread, and share it?"

"Sure." I shrugged and she rolled her eyes at me, "I mean it."

Calla didn't seem convinced and she laughed again, "Whatever."

"I will, I promise."

She sighed and laid her head on my chest, "I'll hold you to that."

"I know you will."

"So…what do you think about having kids after this whole thing?" I wasn't sure why I asked the question, but, walking on the beach, hand in hand, just seemed like the right time to do it.

Calla had said before when we were a bit younger that she didn't want to have kids when things were the way they were before. But, with the war over, President Snow gone, and the last Hunger Games going to be happening a week before Johnathan had scheduled our wedding, it seemed like the proper time to talk about it. When I was younger, I had always wanted kids; after my first Games I didn't, of course, but it was safe to have them without the fear of losing them to the Games now.

"What do you mean, 'this whole thing'? " Calla looked away from the ocean as the sun set slowly over the horizon, her gray eyes curious.

I smiled, nervous now, "I mean, after we're married. Do you want to try having kids?"

"Huh," she turned her attention back to the sunset, "I don't know. I have exactly thought about it. I'm sure dad would be thrilled to have a grandkid thought."

We laughed, "So, what d'you say?"

"We could try." Calla shrugged, "I don't know, I'm not sure I'd be a good mother."

"You'd be a great mother." I smiled at her and stopped walking pulling her to a stop as well, "I'm serious about this."

"Alright," she bit her lip, still looking at the sunset, "It wouldn't hurt to try. After we're married of course, I don't think dad would be very happy if we didn't wait for that."

I smiled, knowing she was right, "Agreed."

"Really?" I laughed as Calla's face grew red, "You seriously did that?"

We were laying in bed, listening to the sounds of the storm that was raging outside. Neither of us could sleep, both enjoying the sounds of thunder mixing with the sounds of the large waves slapping against the beach, telling each other stories we had never had the chance to tell each other.

"Tell me something else." I spoke as lightning illuminated the world outside, some of it coming through the shutters and giving me more light to see Calla's naked body beside mine.

"Um," a clap of thunder sounded, "I hate the color orange."

I laughed again, "The color orange?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

A nervous giggle sounded from her and I pulled her closer to me on the bed, our foreheads and lips touching, the tip of her nipples touching my chest. I'd never been this intimate with someone, especially in bed before. We weren't kissing, just letting our lips touch as Calla spoke again, her lips moving against mine.

"I don't know…it's an obnoxious color. And seeing Flickerman's orange hair was like some bad horror film where the killer sports some unnatural birth defect or something."

I laughed again, "A birth defect?"

"Yeah, like that Freddy Kruger guy."

"I think he was burned alive and that's why he looked like that."

She bit her lip for a moment and her head scrunched up as she thought, "Oh, well…still. It was creepy."

"That is a completely ridiculous reason."

She made a noise of outrage in the back of her throat, "You're completely ridiculous."

We laughed and I grabbed her lips with mine, trying to pull her even closer to me, her nipples and breasts flattening on my chest.

"Do we really have to do this?" Calla snuggled up to me on the couch as I turned the TV on, putting Plutarch's new singing competition on as we settled in for the night.

It had been a long day with Johnathan, picking out wedding invitations envelopes and paper for them, it was a lot more than I thought was needed to have a wedding. Calla and I would have been just fine doing something small with only a few people there. It didn't seem fair that we weren't going to be allowed the small, quiet, wedding that we wanted; everything in our lives had been complicated, why couldn't we just have something simple.

"Do what?"

"Why don't we just secretly run off to Twelve and invite the people we want to come and have a simple little wedding?"

I smiled, wanting to agree with her, "I'm not sure Plutarch would be very happy about that."

"He wouldn't know."

Laughing, I slung my arm around her shoulders, "I'm sure Haymitch would agree, but I don't think that's a smart idea."

Calla scowled, "I know…but I don't want to do this thing."

"I don't either." I sighed, "What if I promise you to do that toasting thing or whatever afterwards."

She laughed, one of her eyebrows quirked as she looked at me like I was stupid, "You mean that you'll agree to let some of the District Twelve people sing as we make our first fire in the house as a married couple, toast bread, and share it?"

"Sure." I shrugged and she rolled her eyes at me, "I mean it."

Calla didn't seem convinced and she laughed again, "Whatever."

"I will, I promise."

She sighed and laid her head on my chest, "I'll hold you to that."

"I know you will."

"So…what do you think about having kids after this whole thing?" I wasn't sure why I asked the question, but, walking on the beach, hand in hand, just seemed like the right time to do it.

Calla had said before when we were a bit younger that she didn't want to have kids when things were the way they were before. But, with the war over, President Snow gone, and the last Hunger Games going to be happening a week before Johnathan had scheduled our wedding, it seemed like the proper time to talk about it. When I was younger, I had always wanted kids; after my first Games I didn't, of course, but it was safe to have them without the fear of losing them to the Games now.

"What do you mean, 'this whole thing'? " Calla looked away from the ocean as the sun set slowly over the horizon, her gray eyes curious.

I smiled, nervous now, "I mean, after we're married. Do you want to try having kids?"

"Huh," she turned her attention back to the sunset, "I don't know. I have exactly thought about it. I'm sure dad would be thrilled to have a grandkid thought."

We laughed, "So, what d'you say?"

"We could try." Calla shrugged, "I don't know, I'm not sure I'd be a good mother."

"You'd be a great mother." I smiled at her and stopped walking pulling her to a stop as well, "I'm serious about this."

"Alright," she bit her lip, still looking at the sunset, "It wouldn't hurt to try. After we're married of course, I don't think dad would be very happy if we didn't wait for that."

I smiled, knowing she was right, "Agreed."


	24. 24: Callalily - Age 19

I walked off the train, seeing my dad waiting for me on the platform like he did every time I came back from the Capitol.

"Hey dad." I hugged him, smelling the beer on him.

Since Snow's proposal he'd been drinking more and more, which seemed almost impossible. I wasn't angry though, I knew he was worried and he'd always had the habit of drinking more when he was. I was the last connection he had to my mom, and he was worried that, like my mother, he would lose me to Snow. But I wasn't going to let Snow take me, just like Finnick had told me last year; he was going to do everything in his power to help me if I needed it.

"Let's go home, I'm tired."

My dad nodded and put his arm around my shoulder, leading me to the car that was waiting for us outside. It would only take us as far as the Justice Building, but I was fine with that. You didn't walk around a lot in the Capitol, especially when you were busy 'entertaining' the higher ups that controlled Panem.

"When do you go back?" My dad looked around, ignoring the people of District Twelve as we walked through the main square, following the familiar road to Victor's Village.

I looked over him, "A couple of weeks."

He huffed angrily, "What, he won't even give you a break until the Games? The Reaping's in less than a month!"

"I know dad," I sighed, looking down at the road, "Finn says hey, by the way."

My dad smiled, "Good to know."

We arrived at Victor's Village, going into the first house, the same house where I had grown up before getting my own.

The houses were all identical, the Capitol was pretty diverse in their styles, but when it came to building houses, the interior was almost exactly identical if you didn't spruce it up yourself. The only thing my dad had done to spruce up the house was to put one lone picture of my mom up in his bedroom. My bedroom had been filled with pictures and posters and all sorts of junk…just like at my new home. I had to have clutter to be sane.

"So what's been going on since I've been gone?" I sat down on the couch, looking at my dad as he went into the kitchen and poured himself a drink; I took one of the glasses as he offered me one, taking a sip of alcohol and ignoring the burn in my throat as he leaned back in his recliner.

"Nothing new. You haven't missed anything other than Cray putting out his normal offer again. There was another mine mishap, so some of the women around the Seam have been even tighter on money than normal." My dad took another, large, sip of his drink, glaring at the contents in it as he spoke.

I made a disgusted sound; of course old Cray would do that to the less fortunate women from the Seam. He was just like the people from the Capitol, taking advantage of the people who just had no other choice. It was do or die in these situations; the only difference was that the women of the Seam were doing it for their children.

"It's too bad that I can't be in the bowls anymore, I could've helped by taking tesserae and giving it to some of the families."

"You already did that when you were participating in the Reapings. I didn't do much to help."

I sighed, "I could talk to Snow…"

Trailing off, I knew that I wouldn't do it…I wouldn't be able to subject myself to anything else that asshole would want me to do for him if I asked him for a favor.

"No you can't." My dad's eyes were hard, wearing the look that he usually got when thinking of Snow. That man had taken almost everything from him; my dad wasn't going to let me do something like that just to help the people who had never helped him.

I could picture Finnick's expression too, his sea-green eyes turning hard and darkening with anger. Of course he would say no too, he'd seen me at some of my weakest moments right after working with Snow's clients, he wasn't going to let me subject myself to even more of that.

I sighed and leaned back, "Forget I mentioned it. I wouldn't go to Snow if I was dying anyway."

"How long are you going to have to do this? Don't people get bored easily in the Capitol?" Sterling Hawthorne walked beside me, both of us going to our clearing in the middle of the woods.

I shrugged, unable to give him a definite answer, "I don't know. Finnick's been doing it since he was sixteen and no one had gotten bored of him yet. There's no telling."

"But Finnick's different."

"How so?" I looked over at Sterling, stopping in my tracks, not liking the tone he was using.

Sterling shrugged, "Because Finnick…he's, I don't know. It's just different. You're not like him and frankly, that's a good thing."

"What is _that _supposed to mean?" Sterling had never been one at talking to people, usually, when we were in town he was the quiet one. I spoke to people, knew what to say when they expected an answer. Sterling, however, was the opposite. He wasn't good at lying to people about what he really thought, wasn't all that good at keeping his thoughts to himself when he had a strong opinion, that was why we had our clearing, to say whatever the hell we wanted to about the Capitol and Snow.

Sterling didn't know much about Finnick other than what he'd seen during interviews during the Games. Sure, he seemed like a player…and extremely cocky on television, but that was definitely an act. Finnick was broken, just like every Victor was; he just wouldn't show it anyone but me.

He cleared his throat, "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that he doesn't seem…real. You can do things that he can't."

"Like what?"

Sterling returned my confused gaze, "Tell Snow you won't do it anymore…and if you want to be all noble about it, tell him you won't do it unless he helps the families that have lost people in the mines. He'll say no to you about that anyway, that asshole doesn't have a compassionate bone in his body. And I'm tired of you coming home looking like you're about to fall apart because of all of this."

Unable to figure out what to say to him, I took another bite from the bread in my hands, looking across the meadow at the trees. The silence that fell between us wasn't like the silence between Finnick and I ; whereas Finnick and I both enjoyed being silent with each other, always knowing what the other was thinking because of the similarities between up; Sterling was only talkative here…and it felt strange for that to be disrupted as he followed suit and stayed quiet.

I paced in the study, biting one of my nails to the quick as I tried to come to a decision. Sterling was right; Snow wouldn't help the people here, even if I did actually tell him that the deal was off. But I wanted out of this whole thing, I was tired of selling my body to people. I wasn't anyone's property and I was tired of being treated like I was.

If Finnick had been there to talk to me, he probably would have told me that it was a stupid thing to do, Snow would be angry. But he was always angry at the Victors for something, maybe he would have more important things to deal with. Like the overwhelming amount of people in the Districts that were dealing with hunger (okay, definitely not that one), or something more probably, the Games…or finding someone else's life to ruin.

With that thought in mind, I sighed and walked over to the phone, picking it up and dialing the number that had been lying on my desk since Snow had come to my dad's house to make his offer. I was free to decline the offer at any time, free to stop what I was being force to do when I was tired of it.

And I was tired of it. Every time I ended up passing someone that had been a client they looked at me stangely, it was like they were reliving what had happened when I'd been with them, and the fact that they enjoyed reliving it was one of the worst things to think about. Whereas I tried my hardest to forget about it the moment it was over, my clients played it over and over again, probably told their friends about it, told their husbands and wives and children about it when it was long over and I had already left.

They wanted them memories that I didn't. And Sterling's words for earlier helped me make my decision, I had changed since my Games, but every time I came home from entertaining people I felt almost worse than how I had felt when they took me out of that arena.

"Hello?" I spoke into the receiver, hearing the voice of one of Snow's secretaries, "Is President Snow available?"

The woman said no, I rolled my eyes, of course not.

"Please inform him that Callalily Abernathy is declining his deal." I hung up the phone and took a deep breath; feeling like a weight had been taken off mu shoulders as I left the study and walked out of the house, hoping to catch Sterling before nightfall.

"Calla! Calla!" I sat up from where I was lying on my couch. The sound of someone pounding on my door waking me up from the nightmare I had been experiencing.

Walking to the door, I opened it, seeing Gale stop mid-yell, "What's from Gale?"

"The mine that Sterling was in had a problem…they're not sure if anyone made it." The fourteen year old boy was crying, something I had never seen from him before and I grabbed my coat and threw it on.

"Let's go." I grabbed Gale's hand, letting him lead me toward the mines where the families from the Seam were standing.

Gale pulled up to Hazelle and I hugged her, feeling her grip tighten around me as she cried. I didn't know what to do, I knew that it had been my fault. Snow had probably gotten my message and decided to take it out on someone close to me, just like he always did. It hurt more to lose family and friends than it did your own life.

"I'm so sorry." The tears fell now and I clung to Hazelle as everyone began bringing the families of the miners blankets.

Someone threw one around Hazelle and me, mumbling their condolences as they walked away, leaving the two of us as everything else fell eerily silent.


	25. 25: Finnick - Age 22

I walked off the train, seeing my dad waiting for me on the platform like he did every time I came back from the Capitol.

"Hey dad." I hugged him, smelling the beer on him.

Since Snow's proposal he'd been drinking more and more, which seemed almost impossible. I wasn't angry though, I knew he was worried and he'd always had the habit of drinking more when he was. I was the last connection he had to my mom, and he was worried that, like my mother, he would lose me to Snow. But I wasn't going to let Snow take me, just like Finnick had told me last year; he was going to do everything in his power to help me if I needed it.

"Let's go home, I'm tired."

My dad nodded and put his arm around my shoulder, leading me to the car that was waiting for us outside. It would only take us as far as the Justice Building, but I was fine with that. You didn't walk around a lot in the Capitol, especially when you were busy 'entertaining' the higher ups that controlled Panem.

"When do you go back?" My dad looked around, ignoring the people of District Twelve as we walked through the main square, following the familiar road to Victor's Village.

I looked over him, "A couple of weeks."

He huffed angrily, "What, he won't even give you a break until the Games? The Reaping's in less than a month!"

"I know dad," I sighed, looking down at the road, "Finn says hey, by the way."

My dad smiled, "Good to know."

* * *

><p>We arrived at Victor's Village, going into the first house, the same house where I had grown up before getting my own.<p>

The houses were all identical, the Capitol was pretty diverse in their styles, but when it came to building houses, the interior was almost exactly identical if you didn't spruce it up yourself. The only thing my dad had done to spruce up the house was to put one lone picture of my mom up in his bedroom. My bedroom had been filled with pictures and posters and all sorts of junk…just like at my new home. I had to have clutter to be sane.

"So what's been going on since I've been gone?" I sat down on the couch, looking at my dad as he went into the kitchen and poured himself a drink; I took one of the glasses as he offered me one, taking a sip of alcohol and ignoring the burn in my throat as he leaned back in his recliner.

"Nothing new. You haven't missed anything other than Cray putting out his normal offer again. There was another mine mishap, so some of the women around the Seam have been even tighter on money than normal." My dad took another, large, sip of his drink, glaring at the contents in it as he spoke.

I made a disgusted sound; of course old Cray would do that to the less fortunate women from the Seam. He was just like the people from the Capitol, taking advantage of the people who just had no other choice. It was do or die in these situations; the only difference was that the women of the Seam were doing it for their children.

"It's too bad that I can't be in the bowls anymore, I could've helped by taking tesserae and giving it to some of the families."

"You already did that when you were participating in the Reapings. I didn't do much to help."

I sighed, "I could talk to Snow…"

Trailing off, I knew that I wouldn't do it…I wouldn't be able to subject myself to anything else that asshole would want me to do for him if I asked him for a favor.

"No you can't." My dad's eyes were hard, wearing the look that he usually got when thinking of Snow. That man had taken almost everything from him; my dad wasn't going to let me do something like that just to help the people who had never helped him.

I could picture Finnick's expression too, his sea-green eyes turning hard and darkening with anger. Of course he would say no too, he'd seen me at some of my weakest moments right after working with Snow's clients, he wasn't going to let me subject myself to even more of that.

I sighed and leaned back, "Forget I mentioned it. I wouldn't go to Snow if I was dying anyway."

* * *

><p>"How long are you going to have to do this? Don't people get bored easily in the Capitol?" Sterling Hawthorne walked beside me, both of us going to our clearing in the middle of the woods.<p>

I shrugged, unable to give him a definite answer, "I don't know. Finnick's been doing it since he was sixteen and no one had gotten bored of him yet. There's no telling."

"But Finnick's different."

"How so?" I looked over at Sterling, stopping in my tracks, not liking the tone he was using.

Sterling shrugged, "Because Finnick…he's, I don't know. It's just different. You're not like him and frankly, that's a good thing."

"What is _that _supposed to mean?" Sterling had never been one at talking to people, usually, when we were in town he was the quiet one. I spoke to people, knew what to say when they expected an answer. Sterling, however, was the opposite. He wasn't good at lying to people about what he really thought, wasn't all that good at keeping his thoughts to himself when he had a strong opinion, that was why we had our clearing, to say whatever the hell we wanted to about the Capitol and Snow.

Sterling didn't know much about Finnick other than what he'd seen during interviews during the Games. Sure, he seemed like a player…and extremely cocky on television, but that was definitely an act. Finnick was broken, just like every Victor was; he just wouldn't show it anyone but me.

He cleared his throat, "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that he doesn't seem…real. You can do things that he can't."

"Like what?"

Sterling returned my confused gaze, "Tell Snow you won't do it anymore…and if you want to be all noble about it, tell him you won't do it unless he helps the families that have lost people in the mines. He'll say no to you about that anyway, that asshole doesn't have a compassionate bone in his body. And I'm tired of you coming home looking like you're about to fall apart because of all of this."

Unable to figure out what to say to him, I took another bite from the bread in my hands, looking across the meadow at the trees. The silence that fell between us wasn't like the silence between Finnick and I ; whereas Finnick and I both enjoyed being silent with each other, always knowing what the other was thinking because of the similarities between up; Sterling was only talkative here…and it felt strange for that to be disrupted as he followed suit and stayed quiet.

I paced in the study, biting one of my nails to the quick as I tried to come to a decision. Sterling was right; Snow wouldn't help the people here, even if I did actually tell him that the deal was off. But I wanted out of this whole thing, I was tired of selling my body to people. I wasn't anyone's property and I was tired of being treated like I was.

If Finnick had been there to talk to me, he probably would have told me that it was a stupid thing to do, Snow would be angry. But he was always angry at the Victors for something, maybe he would have more important things to deal with. Like the overwhelming amount of people in the Districts that were dealing with hunger (okay, definitely not that one), or something more probably, the Games…or finding someone else's life to ruin.

With that thought in mind, I sighed and walked over to the phone, picking it up and dialing the number that had been lying on my desk since Snow had come to my dad's house to make his offer. I was free to decline the offer at any time, free to stop what I was being force to do when I was tired of it.

And I was tired of it. Every time I ended up passing someone that had been a client they looked at me stangely, it was like they were reliving what had happened when I'd been with them, and the fact that they enjoyed reliving it was one of the worst things to think about. Whereas I tried my hardest to forget about it the moment it was over, my clients played it over and over again, probably told their friends about it, told their husbands and wives and children about it when it was long over and I had already left.

They wanted them memories that I didn't. And Sterling's words for earlier helped me make my decision, I had changed since my Games, but every time I came home from entertaining people I felt almost worse than how I had felt when they took me out of that arena.

"Hello?" I spoke into the receiver, hearing the voice of one of Snow's secretaries, "Is President Snow available?"

The woman said no, I rolled my eyes, of course not.

"Please inform him that Callalily Abernathy is declining his deal." I hung up the phone and took a deep breath; feeling like a weight had been taken off mu shoulders as I left the study and walked out of the house, hoping to catch Sterling before nightfall.

* * *

><p>"Calla! Calla!" I sat up from where I was lying on my couch. The sound of someone pounding on my door waking me up from the nightmare I had been experiencing.<p>

Walking to the door, I opened it, seeing Gale stop mid-yell, "What's from Gale?"

"The mine that Sterling was in had a problem…they're not sure if anyone made it." The fourteen year old boy was crying, something I had never seen from him before and I grabbed my coat and threw it on.

"Let's go." I grabbed Gale's hand, letting him lead me toward the mines where the families from the Seam were standing.

Gale pulled up to Hazelle and I hugged her, feeling her grip tighten around me as she cried. I didn't know what to do, I knew that it had been my fault. Snow had probably gotten my message and decided to take it out on someone close to me, just like he always did. It hurt more to lose family and friends than it did your own life.

"I'm so sorry." The tears fell now and I clung to Hazelle as everyone began bringing the families of the miners blankets.

Someone threw one around Hazelle and me, mumbling their condolences as they walked away, leaving the two of us as everything else fell eerily silent.


	26. 26: Callalily - Age 23

I followed the group up the ladder, trying to get away from the lizard mutts that were chasing us through the sewers. Finnick was behind me, climbing with me, trying to escape the mutts when he called my name.

"Calla, go!"

I turned and saw Finnick put his back to the wall as three of the mutts looked hungrily at him, getting ready to attack.

"Calla, let's go!" Gale yelled at me and I looked up at the ledge where Katniss was trying to come down the ladder before Gale stopped her.

Their fighting distracted me for a moment before a yell below me brought my focus back. I looked down again, seeing as Finnick tried and failed, to fight the three mutts off. They began trying to tear at him and I let go of the ladder, pushing at the wall to land a little left of where the mutts were. Pulling out one of my knives, I closed the small gap between me and the closest mutt, stabbing it quickly to get its attention before stabbing it in the chest and slitting its throat. I jumped away as the mutt fell before turning to the second one, giving Finnick the chance to fight with the third one. The smell of roses was being overpowering as I tried to get the upper hand with the second mutt, making it hard to breathe. I coughed suddenly, giving the mutt an advantage. It pounced, knocking me to the ground and crushing me with its weight as it bit into my wrist. My knife fell out of my hand and the mutt's teeth sunk deeper into my wrist until it stopped suddenly and Finnick pulled it off of me.

"Let's go." He helped me up, looking anxiously at my bloody wrist that I was worried about being broken, "Do you need help?"

"No, I'm okay." I climbed the ladder, trying, unsuccessfully, to ignore the pain in my wrist as I hurriedly made my way up the ladder, now sure that Finnick was behind me.

I looked up again as Katniss yelled nightlock three times and threw the holo down to where Finnick and I had fought the mutts. I pushed myself closer to the wall as it blew up and waited for a moment to proceed climbing again. Gale and Katniss helped Finnick and I over the ledge and the group looked at us, surprise written on their faces.

"Let me see you wrist." Finnick broke the silence and when I shook my head, he scowled.

"We need to keep going."

* * *

><p>Katniss looked at the woman she had killed, her mouth set in a grim line. After escaping the mutts, we'd had to run around the maze of houses frantically until we came to this one…and of course, there would be a woman there.<p>

The odds were not in our favor today.

I turned away from her, watching as Finnick wrapped up my wrist. He was cut up pretty badly but he would let me help him yet.

"You have to be careful Callie." He was pleading with me, his sea-green eyes looking away from my wrist and up at my face, "What would Haymitch do if something happened to you?"

I bit my lip, holding back to the nervous giggle that was threatening to come out, "I wasn't going to leave you. You didn't really leave me a choice."

Finnick sighed, "I know."

We fell silent, looking at each other as Katniss helped Gale with the cut on his forehead and everyone else settled down from looking around the dead woman's house. Everyone of the 'Star Squad' looked horrible, we all had some type of injury, whether it be deep cuts to the head or broken wrists. This was not supposed to have happened and Katniss was not supposed to lead the mission.

I stood up, grabbing a clean washcloth from the kitchen and wet it, returning to sit in front of Finnick, cleaning the blood from a cut on his cheek. He closed his eyes as the cold cloth touched his skin, pushing his face into it slightly.

"I don't know what I would do if something happened to you." He whispered, his eyes still closed.

I was silent for a moment, watching as he slowly opened his eyes and looked into mine, "Nothing's going to happen to me Finn."

We gave each other weak smiles and then turned as Katniss said that we were sleeping here. I sighed; glad to have a little break before going deeper into the Capitol. It would be strange being back in the Capitol with no clients to entertain.

"How long do you think we have before they figure out some of us have survived?" Katniss breaks the silence that had fallen between our group and I looked up from rubbing some of the blood off of Finnick's neck, he winced as I pressed to hard on the deep gash that was there.

"Sorry." I spoke quietly to him as Gale answered Katniss.

"I think they could be here anytime. They know we were heading for the streets. Probably the explosion will throw them off for a few minutes, then they'll start looking for exit point."

"What're we going to do?" I speak up then, looking at Katniss as she looked out the window and spoke to Cressida.

Katniss looked around, seeing the damage that each of us had experienced today. My wrist was throbbing and Finnick's neck was still bleeding, I placed the cloth onto it again, hoping to stop it before I bandaged the deep cut. Gale's head had already been bandaged up and he looked pale and exhausted. Peeta was laying on the dead woman's sofa, biting one of the pillows. Cressida was so pale it looked like she was about to pass out.

"Let's check her closets."

Confused, I looked at Katniss again, trying to figure out what she wanted to do. Everyone but Peeta, Finnick, and me moved to do that and I pulled the cloth from Finnick's neck again and bandaged it, hoping it would be enough for now. Obviously Katniss wasn't planning on staying here.

With Finnick's neck bandaged, we both stood up and helped, finding more than enough closet space. I made a face as we went through her clothing and we piled it up in the living room as Katniss ordered us to change our clothes.


	27. 27: Finnick - Age 19

_"Let the 69__th__ Hunger Games begin!" _Seneca Crane spoke and I stared at the screens sitting beside Haymitch, away from the other Career mentors as the kids left their pedestals. The arena seemed to be a forest, but everything was covered in snow. It was deeper than it looked because even the District Nine kid who was taller than the other tributes sunk into the snow. I stopped paying attention to the other tributes as one of the screens showed Calla as she stayed on her pedestal, looking around.

"What the hell is she doing?" Haymitch growled beside me, his hands angrily clenching into fists as he watched.

I shook my head, "She's just looking at her surroundings, give her a minute."

The man fell silent beside me as we watched now; after about ten seconds Calla finally stepped down from her pedestal pushing her way through the snow to where one of the other tributes had made ruts from heading toward the Cornucopia. She turned, trying to hurry as she reached a bag that was away from the Cornucopia and continued to run, narrowly avoiding the knife that the District Two male had thrown in her direction.

As she ran, Mitchell, her District partner elbowed my District Four girl in the face, sending her to the ground with a broken nose as he stole her backpack. My eyes grew hard as I watched, that girl had only been fourteen, she hadn't had a chance in hell of winning, but it wasn't a fair way to go. However, before Mitchell could do anything else, the eighteen year old from Nine had come up behind him and slit his throat, he fell to the ground on top of the fourteen year old girl, blood spurting from his neck as the girl screamed and tried to push the dead boy off of her. The eighteen year old pull the body from her and stabbed her, she continued screaming as Nine once more lifted his sword and cut off her head. I cringed, trying to figure out how some people could do all that damage.

Turning my attention from that screen, I looked back at Calla's watching as she ran through the forest quickly, looking back as sounds erupted from the Cornucopia behind her. She stopped finally to look in the bag that she had grabbed, finding some, surprisingly, useful things in it for being so far away from the Cornucopia.

"Alright." She nodded and started walking again.

* * *

><p>"Morning." I plopped into the seat beside Haymitch again, ignoring the looks I was getting from the Career mentors.<p>

Haymitch nodded in greeting, rubbing his temples, "This thing better end soon, I haven't had a drink in over a week."

"Get over it. This is good for you." I spoke, looking at the screens again.

Calla was already awake and moving, packing her sleeping bag into the backpack and jumping from the tree she had holed up in for the night. I was glad she'd woken up early, everyone else was asleep still, they'd be awake soon, but she was moving back toward the pond she had found yesterday.

"I need coffee." Standing up, I walked over to the stand that held coffee, pouring a cup and dropping a couple of sugar cubes in it before walking back to my seat next to Haymitch.

Calla was stuffing her canteen back into her backpack and I hear Enobaria placing a bet on the eighteen year old from across the room. Chaff offered Haymitch a drink which the District 12 man, thankfully, declined. And Mags was looking at the screen where Seth sat in his little camp. I ignored his screen and continued watching Calla's, glad that she hadn't run into any trouble. As Haymitch and I watched, Calla shook her head at something and gave a small smile at something.

She stood up from the pond after a moment and left the pond, continuing on her trek through the forest.

"Well, well, well…look what we have here."

Calla turned around, coming face to face with the eighteen year old District 9 tribute who had seemed to pop up out of nowhere. She gripped the knife in her hand tighter and her gray eyes were wide in surprised for a moment before going back to their normal size.

"Shit." Haymitch spoke beside me, watching the screen and shaking his head, "She's not going to stand a chance with him."

I didn't speak, instead I continued staring at the screen, my hands clinched in fists.

"I'm surprised, you know, considering that you're the infamous Haymitch Abernathy's kid…I sort of expected more. I mean, he won the second Quarter Quell."

"What the hell is he talking about?" I asked, she hadn't had a chance to do anything to impress him. What did he want her to do?

He took a couple of steps closer to her and Calla backed away, "I expected a less cocky eighteen year old."

"Why? You know just as well as I do that I'm going to win." The eighteen year old laughed at Calla's words and she glared at him.

"You're hopeful."

"I'm the oldest one here, there's no way I'm going to die."

Calla cracked a small smile, "You obviously didn't pay much attention to the previous Games did you? Five years ago, a fourteen year old from District Four killed two eighteen year olds after they killed his District partner." my chest tightened as Calla spoke, "He went on to win."

"Yeah, but Finnick Odair's a bit of a whore, don't you think?" I glared at the eighteen year old on the screen, seeing as Calla did the same. She didn't speak though, which I was thankful for. Snow would have loved for her to have said something to use against me, "No retort?"

"I don't see the need to talk to you. You seem so sure of yourself that I wouldn't want you to have to deal with the guilt of almost knowing the girl you killed later on."

The eighteen year old laughed again, "Trust me, there won't be any guilt."

He took one more step closer to her and then lunged with his knife, causing Calla to jump out of the way. She returned the gesture and gave him a descent sized cut in his arm. He lunged again and Calla tried to move but was to slow and Nine gave her a nice slash on her shoulder, cutting through the fluffy jacket that all the contests were outfitted in. They continued sparring and Calla pushed against the eighteen year old, sending him a couple of steps backward.

"You're a lot more fun than I thought you would be. Maybe I'll have a different kind of fun with you before I kill you, let you know what having a man is like before you die. Consider it a gift." He smiled at Calla, a dark, sadistic smile and Calla returned it with a glare.

She didn't reply to that. I was glad for that simple fact. This asshole was threatening to do something that made me want to kill him. I didn't even have to look beside me at Haymitch to see what he thought either, he had dropped the drink from his hand as Nine spoke, and Avox running to clean it up before he shooed her away. If Nine survived the Games Haymitch might kill him.

She took another step back and I leaned closer to the screen on the wall, trying to figure out what she was doing until she took another step and revealed a piece of rope hanging slightly in front of the hidden camera. I looked at the rope trying to figure out what it was for a moment before my attention returned to Calla as her back ran into the stump of a tree.

What was she doing?

The eighteen year old took another step and then, all of a sudden, he was hanging upside down. She'd set a giant snare.

"What the-"As his knife fell from his hand, Calla grabbed it and stepped away from him.

"You think you're clever Twelve?"

Calla smiled at him, "Yeah, I suppose I do."

"You know it's only a matter of time before the Careers come after you." Calla's expression changed just like it had when she'd been reaped. Her face became indifferent and she turned to leave, "At least if I had killed you I would have made it quick, I'd have made you feel like a woman for the first and only time of your miserable life, but now the Careers are going to find you and you're going to have one slow and painful death to look forward too."

Make her feel like a woman? I wanted her to kill him, to shove the sword that she had taken from him through his throat. Maybe that would make him feel like a man.

She laughed, it sounded hollow and nothing like the laugh that I had grown used to over the years, "Raping someone doesn't make them feel like a woman you pig. Anything the Careers do to me would be more welcoming than you."

Well, I didn't want that, I know that Calla certainly did it, but her voice was strong and then she turned to walk away, to leave Nine hanging there stranded.

"Don't turn your back on your enemy Calla." Haymitch spoke beside me, the first time since his daughter had met Nine in the arena. It surprised me slightly, but I knew he was right. Who knew what other weapons he might have found or received from Sponsors.

"I can't wait until Haymitch has to watch you die. It's too bad that I can't be a fly on the wall for that, because we all know he's going to fly off the handle."

I could see the deep breath she took before she closed her eyes, trying not to think about his words. "Shut up."

"Maybe he'll die too. Wouldn't that be tragic? The whole Abernathy family just wiped out." The sarcastic smile on the man's face made me grit my teeth. Her father was clutching the armrests, shaking furiously.

"Shut up!" She yelled at Nine again, throwing her knife and catching him in the neck. I was surprised, she had never been that angry before, never lashed out like that to another person, no matter what they'd said or done. This was going to haunt her, I could see it in her eyes, the way they widened when she turned around and saw her knife protruding out of his neck.

"I didn't think you had it in you, Twelve." His last words came out strained, but he was smiling and I couldn't quite understand why. Calla stood there for a moment, looking at what she'd done before running away from the body that had been the man from District Nine.

My chest clinched again, like it had on the train when I had heard her name called, and Haymitch let out a slight sigh of relief.

"Shit."

* * *

><p>"Morning." Haymitch plopped onto the chair next to me, handing me a cup of coffee as he took a sip from his own as we watched the screens. The tributes were waking up now and when I had come in two hours ago, Calla had already been awake but had yet to move.<p>

I nodded my thanks, my attention focused on what Calla was doing. When she'd finally decided to make camp yesterday (high into a tree that was slowly gaining more and more snow as it continued to fall down) it had been easy to tell that she was scared and she was slowly moving into a depression that I had seen on many tributes after they had taken their first kill. Some of them ended up killing themselves after that and as Calla bit her lip, looking at the ground from her perch, I knew that I had to do something before she went through with it.

Standing up, I walked briskly to one of the gift machines and clicked the picture of her face, choosing the more expensive District Four bread without thinking about it as I typed the message to be added with it. After finishing the transaction, I looked back over at the screen, watching as the parachute fell into her lap. Calla looked for it for a moment and opened it, finding the break and pulling out the piece of paper. She smiled at the message and pulled a piece of bread from the parachute, ripping a small piece of it off and sticking it in her mouth.

I gave a small laugh at her face as the taste hit her. It was very different from the bread in District Twelve, ours was salt and theirs had some sort of oat or something in it. I hadn't found theirs that good, or at least that was what I had thought when I'd eaten it on my Victory Tour.

She bit her lip as she placed the rest of the bread in the container again and packed her camp up quickly before climbing a little ways down from her tall branch and jumping from one of the lower ones. I was thankful that the note worked.

Calla would come home broken, but she would come back to me alive.


	28. 28: Callalily - Age 23

"Hey." I looked over at Finnick as he came up behind me, his arms snaking around my waist as I scanned my arm for my schedule.

In the past couple of weeks since I had gotten out of the hospital and moved into an apartment, he and I hadn't had a lot of alone time. Sure, we would sneak into each other's apartments to sleep, but by the time that happened we were both so exhausted that there wasn't even time to talk much before we would doze off. And during the day, we both had our schedules that Coin expected us to follow, the only time we could see each other was at lunch.

I smiled at him and then looked at the purple ink on my arm; the only good thing was the fact that I had training at the end of the day.

"Come on, I'm kidnapping you."

Looking at Finnick again, I laughed, "And where exactly are you kidnapping me to?"

"Katniss is giving me her time to go hunting. I have exactly two hours to be out of this hellhole of a bunker…and I get to take someone with me."

"I have stuff to do Finn."

He rolled his eyes, "Hence the kidnapping."

"You can't kidnap me."

"Says who?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, placing my hands on my hips, "Says me."

"Too late."

He picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder as I yelped in surprise. Finnick laughed and walked through the crowd of people that had begun to gather in line to scan their arms, ignoring the people from District Thirteen as they gave up strange looks.

"Put me down Finnick." I laughed and he jostled me on his shoulder, causing me to punch his back, "Now."

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"I don't like you right now."

Finnick ignored me and continued to walk through Thirteen, heading toward the nearest exit.

"Can I ask what you're doing?" Finnick stopped walking and turned to look at my dad as he spoke.

Finnick shrugged, jostling me again, "I'm performing a kidnapping."

"Oh, well have fun."

I looked over Finnick's shoulder at my dad, "Some father you are."

"I can't help you here. Finnick's to masterful at this." He held his hands in front of him in mock surrender with a smile, "Better luck next time."

"I hate you."

* * *

><p>"I love being outside."<p>

Finnick laughed as I put my arms out and twirled around, looking up at the trees. I hadn't been outside since the Quarter Quell and that had been a disaster. The wind blew, causing my short hair to fly into my face and I smiled, looking over at Finnick again as he watched me.

"See, I was right in kidnapping you."

He walked over to me and I grabbed a fistful of his shirt to pull him even closer, "Maybe so. You should do it a little more discretely next time though."

Finnick shot me a cocky smile and his arms encircled my waist, "I don't think so."

We kissed, trying to pull each other closer than we already were. We'd both been so busy and crowded with people lately that we hadn't had any time to actually be alone, it felt nice to have some quiet time out of the underground society that belonged to District Thirteen for once. Somewhere a Mockingjay sand in the distance and I laughed, pulling my lips away from Finnick's.

"What are you laughing about?"

I smiled, "I just had this vision of one of those bad romance movies from the Capitol that we used to make fun of. This would be the scene where the two lovers reunite after a long break from each other. You're supposed to be saying something about how you can't live without me and how you did something stupid and apologize."

"Why do you even remember anything about those stupid movies?" Finnick laughed at me and I shrugged.

"I kind of liked those moves." He gave me a strange look, "The storylines would have been good if the actors hadn't been creepy Capitol people."

He shook his head at me, "You know something?"

"Huh?"

"I love you sometimes."

I laughed and he kissed me again, cutting my laugh and my chance to retort off. We stayed like that for a few moments, and then both pulled away, pressing our foreheads together. It was nice having some quiet, alone, time together. Even at lunch when we were able to find our own table my dad would sit down with us. It was nice having a break, being able to just enjoy each other's presence without being exhausted or on guard in front of anyone.

"Only sometimes?" I finally spoke with a curious look at him.

Finnick laughed and sat down, pulling me by the hand with him, "Yes."

"Shut up." I rolled my eyes at him and laid my head against his chest, listening as more Mockingjays sand in the forest.

* * *

><p>"So, I hear you skipped out on most of the day." I looked over at my dad as I sat at the table with him, eating dinner. Finnick had been caught up by Greasy Sae at the counter where we had gotten our food. I looked over at him for a moment; smiling as he spoke with his hands to explain something to the older woman and then turned my attention back to my dad.<p>

"Well, it seems my kidnapping was meant as an all day thing." I shrugged at my dad and took a bite of food.

Finnick sat his plate down and sat on the bench beside me, our legs touching under the table, "So, apparently, I'm not as good at this hunting thing as Katniss."

"It would appear so," I snorted, "You brought back two squirrels because you wouldn't let me help. Tridents are not meant for hunting."

He rolled his eyes, "I had it under control."

"No he didn't." I looked at my dad, "He's not very good at hunting…at all, actually. I think you should stick with fish Finn."

Finnick laughed at me, "I probably should."


	29. 29: Finnick - Age 26

I waited for the ceremony to start, not sure how I was supposed to feel about this whole thing. Calla had been pushed into her own room the moment that Katniss' prep team had arrived and I was feeling a little strange without her beside me now. She'd been beside me for so long that without her there it felt as if one of my limbs was missing. All I could imagine was when she had left me to go up to Twelve's floor before her Games, I knew better though; she was three rooms down on the right. She was in the same place I was, getting ready for our wedding.

Messing with the cuff of my suit jacket, I looked out the window, matching my breathing with the waves of the sea to calm down. It helped for a moment until I started pacing. I was nervous, I had never been to a wedding before, let alone been married…I didn't want to do the wrong thing.

I didn't want to screw this up.

"Come on Finnick." I looked over at the door and saw Peeta, "They're ready to start."

I sighed, "Alright."

"Don't worry about it; everything's going to go great."Peeta laughed at me as we walked to our places. He took the spot behind me, having been chosen as one of my groomsmen. I was thankful he had accepted, I didn't know what I was doing and I was almost ready to bolt.

* * *

><p>The music started and I watched as Johanna walked down the aisle, looking displeased at the fact that she was wearing a dress, followed by Gale's little sister Posy threw flowers onto the sand around her. Katniss appeared next and then, the woman of the hour escorted by Haymitch.<p>

I hadn't seen the dress before now, but I was happy with the one she had chosen. It was a strapless white dress, the skirt dragging on the sand as Calla and Haymitch walked through the sea of lilies that Posy had thrown to the ground. Her hair was left down and curled in ringlets that curled around her face. I smiled at her gaining one in return as the music continued and Haymitch continued leading her down the aisle.

Haymitch looked a little out of place for this whole thing, he was wearing a suit, something I'd only seen him wear twice; once when he was trying to get sponsors for Calla and then again when he was getting sponsors for Katniss. He looked slightly uncomfortable in the suit but I didn't care, I was mostly surprised that he'd even worn one at all.

As they reached the end of the aisle, Haymitch handed me Calla's hand and I held hers tightly, smiling as she stepped up on the small platform and gave a soft giggle. She was nervous and it made me feel a little better, I was glad that I wasn't the only nervous one…I was still expecting Snow to call to tell me that he had another client lined up. Calla had told me last night that she felt the same way. We couldn't just forget everything that had happened before the war had taken place; we were starting to move on though. We would never forget, but we would be able to have our own lives now.

The guy that Johnathon had hired to perform the ceremony was speaking but I wasn't quite paying attention to him. I was looking at Calla, convincing myself that this wasn't some weird, fucked up, dream. I smiled at her, earning another large one in return as we stood in front of the large crowd. Calla hadn't been very happy with Johnathan when she'd found out how many people he had sent out invitations to, it was ridiculous really, not only did we have a camera crew here, but there were over a hundred people at our wedding…we didn't even know most of them.

* * *

><p>"It's time to cut the cake." Johnathan looked over at Calla and me, nodding toward the large cake that had been moved into the center of the room.<p>

Peeta had made it, there had been a long argument with Johnathan with that one, but eventually Calla's stubbornness had won out and now we were staring at a four tiered cake with alternating seashells and calla lilies on them. I smiled at the flowers, knowing that Calla thought they were only for 'dead people'. She grabbed the knife and I place my hand over hers as we cut ourselves a piece from the first tier and placed it onto a plate. We fed each other the cake before taking some of the frosting and smearing it on her nose, gaining another large smile from her as she did the same.

The crowd laughed, but we ignored them as I pulled Calla in for a kiss and the band began playing from somewhere behind us, causing an excited murmur to pulse through the crowd as Calla and I pulled apart so that we could perform our first dance.

"Well, Mrs. Odair," I smiled as we danced and wiped the frosting from her nose, "Only a couple more hours and we can get out of here."

She laughed at me, "Yeah, if we can get away from all these people. Do you even know who that last person congratulating us was?"

"I thought you knew them."

Calla scoffed, "That's highly unlikely."

* * *

><p>"So…" Calla trailed off as we walked up to the hotel room in the Capitol. The one place Johnathan thought was good enough for our honeymoon.<p>

I hesitated in front of the door and then sucked it up, opening the door and picking Calla up as I walked over the threshold, kicked the door shut and put her on the bed, ignoring the luggage that was still outside as I leaned over her. I kept my weight on my arms and kissed her, it felt different to me and I wasn't quite sure why, but I knew what was supposed to happen after this.

After the night I had made her go swimming and we'd had sex for the first time, I knew that this time would be much easier. It was still a little awkward for us, but we'd get through it eventually and I looked forward to the time when that awkward, nervous, stage passed for us.

"So, what's on the agenda for tonight, Mrs. Odair?"

Calla cracked a smile and then caught my mouth with hers again as she unzipped my pants and pushed them down. I kicked them off and we hesitated for a moment before I began taking the dress that Johnathan had insisted she wear for the trip to the Capitol.

She ran a hand through my hair and then moved it to my cheek, leaving it there. Placing my hand over hers, we smiled at each other and then I took off her dress, staring at her body. I didn't think that I would ever get tired of it, no matter how many times I'd seen it. I loved her and here we were, able to be married and to have the happy ending that we'd always dreamed of. I kissed her again, moving down her neck and past the contours of her body, feeling the softness of her skin.

"Hey," she ran a hand through my hair again and I looked up from where I'd been kissing around her navel, "I love you."

I smiled at her and kissed her stomach one more time, "I love you too."


	30. 30: Calla - Age 35

"Come on Grandpa, I just want on sip." Zale followed my dad around, begging him for a sip of whatever alcohol he was drinking.

My dad rolled his eyes at the nine year old, "I've already told you kid, you don't need to taste this."

"But I want to."

"Listen to you grandfather, Zale." I spoke up now, looking over at the scene from where I was sitting with Katniss, Peeta, and Finncik, looking over the book that they were making to remember the fallen Victors. Zale had been fascinated with my dad since he was born, wanting his attention even when he was a baby; my dad, however, found the constant attention annoying, claiming that he'd already had to raise me.

Zale Chaff Odair was our only child, so far, I was already getting huge with kid number two, but for the life of both Finnick and me, we couldn't understand why we had waited for so long. I was hoping that this time it would be a girl this time, there was so much testosterone around here now that I needed another girl to even everything out.

With an annoyed face in my direction from Zale, and a stern one thrown back from Finnick, the nine year old boy let out an exasperated sigh. I hid a small smile as my dad set his drink down and looked at his grandson.

"Come on, let's go play catch or something."

"Be safe."

Zale crossed his arms at me, "Mom, we'll be fine."

"I know, I know." I laughed and looked back at the book on the table, flipping one of the pages and seeing the face of Mags that Peeta had painstakingly painted onto the page.

Finnick smiled beside me and grabbed my hand, rubbing circles on it with his thumb, "Katniss and I figured that you would know more about Mags, so we waited to fill this page out until we knew for sure that you guys were going to be here."

"Yeah, I can help with this." He smiled again, "So, what exactly do you want to know?"

* * *

><p>"How exactly are you going to handle another kid with Zale already being a handful?" I rolled my eyes at my dad's question, annoyed with him now as I sipped at the coffee he had given me.<p>

Finnick and Zale were still asleep, something that I wasn't used to when we were in Four, usually they were awake with the tides, heading to the beach as soon as possible and letting me sleep in, but here in Twelve, my territory, they were constantly sleeping in. It was funny really, without the sea outside the backdoor they were lazy as hell.

"What do you mean dad? I think I handled being a kid and taking care of you just fine. Just think, without me you never would have turned out half as great as you are now."

He made a face at me, "I'm serious."

"Don't worry about it dad. Finn and I have it all under control, and Zale will help us out when he can." I took another sip, "And, he's excited about being a big brother. Finn'll have help teaching this one how to swim and all that."

My dad shook his head, "Still."

"I'm a big girl dad. I think I can handle this."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

I laughed, "What is that supposed to mean?"

He scowled at me, staying silent for a moment as I allowed him to get his thoughts together. My dad was never the fluffy type. Anything that meant allowing any emotion besides annoyance or drunkenness was hard for him, and I knew that.

"You're my little girl," my dad sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, "it's weird thinking that you're all grown up. It seems like yesterday that I was holding you for the first time."

I quirked an eyebrow at him, surprised, "That was deep."

"I'm serious."

With a small chuckle, I stopped messing with him, "You said that already, dad. Look, Finn and I are going to be fine, we've got this under control; and I think we're doing just fine with Zale. We got this."

"I know that. I'm your father though, I'm supposed to worry."

I giggled, getting uncomfortable with his conversation; this whole thing was very out of character with my dad. He wasn't good at this kind of thing. Sure, he was a great dad and I wouldn't have redone anything that we had been through together, but he wasn't very good at showing affection. Hugs were a big thing with us, when I was a little kid I had held his hand sometimes, but actually talking about it, that was just something that rarely happened.

"Well stop worrying. It doesn't look good on you. What would Effie think?"

His eyes narrowed, "Don't start with that again."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

* * *

><p>"You will not believe what dad said to me this morning." I looked over at Finnick as we followed Zale through the woods, watching the nine year old's bronze hair as he jumped over rocks and bounded through the shrubs and ferns.<p>

Zale wasn't as quiet in the forest as Finnick and I were, even being four months pregnant and starting to get fat hadn't made me half as loud as our son was. It made me smile, thinking back to the 74th Games where Katniss complained about Peeta's loud walking, I had understood where the sixteen year old had been coming from, loud walking while a person was hunting could really be annoying.

"What did he say?" Finnick returned my look and helped me down from one of the steeper, slippery, slopes on the trail. I smiled at him as he place a hand on my growing stomach and kissed me.

I shrugged and we continued walking, "He told me that he was worried that we were having two kids. And, when I told him that he shouldn't worry because I'm a big girl and can take care of myself he said that I would forever be his little girl and that it was his job to worry. And then, then he told me that he felt like it was just yesterday that he was getting to hold me for the first time."

"That's very deep, especially for Haymitch." Finnick laughed, "But we'll be okay. I think we're getting this parenting thing down pretty well."

We laughed for a moment, standing still when Zale's voice rand from ahead of us, his body concealed by the shrubs and trees as the trail curved, "Come on guys. Hurry up!"

The whine in his voice made me role my eyes and Finnick and I continued walking again. He kept a tight hold of my hand as we followed our son through the forest that I had originally traveled in with Sterling.

It was crazy for me to think that seventeen years ago I was walking on this exact trail, hunting to help Sterling feed his family. Finnick, sensing where my thoughts were going, squeezed my hand as he helped me down another slope. It had struck me as annoying the first time, nine years ago, when I first found out that I was pregnant, Finnick had been overly protective about everything; I couldn't walk down the stairs without help, couldn't sit down or stand up without him coming to help me. It had annoyed me to no end, and, of course, just like my dad would have, I snapped at him about it; he relaxed with it, but still, I could see him tense every time I did anything he thought was too strenuous. Now, however, he was being a bit better about the whole thing, he knew how I was when I was pregnant, sure, he was still overprotective about everything, he knew when to back off now though, and I was thankful for that.

"What had brought up that whole conversation anyway?"

We caught up to Zale, watching the bronze haired boy bound through the forest now, acting as if he was some explorer. I shrugged at Finnick's question, "I don't know, he was saying something about how Zale reminded him a little about my mom, the way he acts. And, then, he got really serious and started getting all sappy. It was strange."

"Zale reminds Haymitch of your mother?"

Finnick's voice made me snort, "Apparently his personality is very similar to hers."

"Huh." I laughed and Finnick gave me a large smile, "I love that sound."

Looking at him again, I smiled at him in return, "I love you."


End file.
